The proposed conference will explore life course and developmental perspectives on health inequalities. The conference, which is proposed for June, 2004, will be organized by the Penn State Gerontology Center and co-sponsored by the Center for Human Development and Family Research in Diverse Contexts and the Social Science Research Consortium of Penn State. Co-chairs of the conference will be Leonard I. Pearlin, Graduate Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, and Steven H. Zarit, Professor of Human Development and Assistant Director of the Gerontology Center at Penn State University.
The aim i s for an agenda building conference that will use empirical findings, when available, to examine the life course conditions from childhood through adulthood that influence health disparities, as well as developing conceptual, theoretical and methodological frameworks for exploring these issues. A hallmark of the proposed program will be examination of available longitudinal data to address antecedents and cumulative effects of health disparities over the life course.
Research aim ed at illuminating the links between people's social and economic statuses and their health has tended to focus on contemporaneous health behaviors and life style dispositions. What is largely missing from the research at the present time is an understanding of the part played by earlier bio-psycho-social circumstances in the health status of people at mid- and late-life. Health disparities that are observed at any point in the life course may have antecedents that surfaced at earlier points. That is, antecedent events or conditions might have delayed and/or cumulative effects that become most clearly reflected in health and health behavior at later times in the life course. We believe that our understanding of the underpinnings of health disparities would be advanced if, in addition to other approaches, the conditions that are linked to both status locations and health were viewed within a life course context. The proposed two-day conference will explore these issues from several perspectives, including conceptual and theoretical models for examining life course effects of disparities on health, as well as the role of specific factors such as race, gender and economic status. Major papers will be followed by formal discussions to extend and illuminate the presentations. Proceedings will be published in a special journal issue.
