Stress, Health, and the Life Course: Some Conceptual Perspectives

This article proposes several conceptual perspectives designed to advance our understanding of the material and experiential conditions contributing to persistent disparities in rates of morbidity and mortality among groups unequal in their social and economic statuses. An underlying assumption is that these disparities, which are in clear evidence at mid- and late life, may be anchored to earlier circumstances of the life course. Of particular interest are those circumstances resulting in people with the least privileged statuses having the greatest chances of exposure to health-related stressors. Among the stressors closely linked to status and status attainment are those that continue or are repeated across…