The longterm influence of socio-economic disadvantage on the psychosocial adjustment of women

On the basis of a prospective longitudinal study of over 15,000 women this paper examines the long-term influences of socio-economic disadvantages on psychosocial adjustment. The study draws on data from two British cohort studies carried out 12 years apart from each other. A contextual developmental perspective is adopted to analyse the pathways linking childhood experiences to adult functioning in a changing socio-historical context. The study suggests a causal chain process linking the early and persisting experience of socio-economic adversity to behavioural maladjustment of girls during childhood and adolescence. Socio-economic adversity and behavioural maladjustment in adolescence, in turn, predict the development of depressive symptoms in adulthood. The influence of socio-economic adversity on individual development, however, also depends on the wider socio-historical context in which development takes place. It is concluded that for a better understanding of psychosocial adjustment across the lifespan we have to consider the interactions of a changing individual in a changing context.