• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

The Biosocial Approach to Human Development, Behavior, and Health Across the Life Course Kathleen mullan harris and t homas W. m cdade Social, cultural, economic, and biological fac- Bringing TogeTher The tors are widely recognized as critical determi- Biological and The Social nants of well- being across the life course. Yet The term biosocial is widely used in the social an integrative understanding of the multilevel sciences, but rarely defined. Perhaps its mean- biosocial pathways linking society, biology, ing is self- evident. And though the term has health, and socioeconomic attainment remains appeared in the scientific literature for more elusive. The objective of this issue is to show- than fifty years, approaches and applications case research that integrates theory, data, and in biosocial research have shifted qualitatively methods from the social and biological sci- over the past fifteen years.1 In this section, we ences to advance our understanding of social discuss these developments and the synergies and biological processes that contribute to, or afforded by integrating perspectives from the derive from, social stratification across the life social and biological sciences. course. In this introduction, we describe the We definebiosocial as a broad concept refer- state of current research and discuss both the encing the dynamic, bidirectional interactions motivation for and relevant concepts underly- between biological phenomena and social rela- ing a biosocial perspective. We review the tionships and contexts, which constitute pro- themes and research contributions in this is- cesses of human development over the life sue, and chart a course forward for understand- course. It is difficult, if not impossible, to rep- ing biosocial pathways of well- being across the resent the complexities of these biosocial dy- life course. namics in two dimensions, but we attempt to Kathleen Mullan Harris is James E. Haar Distinguished Professor of Sociology and faculty fellow of the Caro- lina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and director of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). Thomas W. McDade is Carlos Montezuma Professor of Anthropology and faculty fellow of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. He is also a senior fellow in the Child and Brain Development Pro- gram of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. © 2018 Russell Sage Foundation. Harris, Kathleen Mullan, and Thomas W. McDade. 2018. “The Biosocial Ap- proach to Human Development, Behavior, and Health Across the Life Course.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 4(4): 2–26. DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2018.4.4.01. Direct correspondence to: Kathleen Mullan Harris at [email protected], University of North Carolina, 206 W. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, NC 27516; and Thomas W. McDade at t- [email protected], Northwestern University, 1810 Hinman Ave., Evanston, IL 60208. Open Access Policy: RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences is an open access journal. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. 1. In 1969, both the Journal of Biosocial Science and Social Biology began publishing. In 2008, Social Biology was renamed to Biodemography and Social Biology, the journal of the Society for Biodemography and Social Biology. the biosocial approach to human development 3 Figure 1. Conceptual Model of Biosocial Dynamics Across the Life Course Political economy Social structure and stratification Neighborhoods and schools Interpersonal relationships Brain and Body gestation infancy childhood adolescence adulthood older adulthood Biochemical messengers Organs and tissues Physiological and neurological systems Genome and epigenome Source: Authors’ compilation. do so in figure 1, which builds on prior efforts and multidimensional, and are illustrated by to highlight the multilevel domains and path- the relationships and interactions among indi- ways of particular importance in biosocial ap- viduals living in groups and within social con- proaches to health and social inequality (Kuh texts (families, neighborhoods, schools) who and Ben-Shlomo 2004; Glass and McAtee 2006). share the norms, institutions, and hierarchies The top boxes represent the set of nested and that structure them. The social realm can also interacting social contexts “outside” the body include aspects of the physical environment of that affect the developing brain and body of an relevance to biology (such as exposure to envi- individual throughout all stages of the life ronmental contaminants, public space for rec- course. Similarly, the bottom boxes represent reation) that are structured by social relations the nested and interacting levels of biological and hierarchies. organization “inside” the brain and body that A biosocial perspective, therefore, draws on respond to, and shape, social worlds. What con- models and methods from the biological, med- stitutes biological can be characterized as pro- ical, behavioral, and social sciences. It concep- cesses and structures within an individual that tualizes the biological and the social as mutu- contribute to the growth, reproduction, and ally constituting forces, and blurs boundaries maintenance of the soma from conception to between phenomena inside the body and out- death. Biology is typically organized across mul- side of the body. It implies that attempts to un- tiple levels, including the genome, molecular derstand one without the other are incomplete. interactions (such as gene expression, hormone It is a transdisciplinary approach to under- production); integrated physiological and neu- standing human development, behavior, and rological systems (such as the cardiovascular health, developed and applied by scholars that system; the sympathetic adrenal medullary often have disciplinary backgrounds in anthro- axis); organs and other tissues; and cells and pology, psychology, epidemiology, sociology, cellular processes. economics, public health, genomics, medicine, Social phenomena are similarly complex and demography. rsf: the russell sage foundation journal of the social sciences 4 biosocial path Ways across the life course Ongoing calls for a more integrative, multi- to biology has the potential to illuminate mech- method, multilevel interdisciplinary approach anisms through which socioeconomic, demo- to research on human development, health, graphic, and psychosocial factors shape human and social inequality underscore the impor- development and health within the context of tance and potential contribution of a biosocial everyday life. perspective (Halfon and Hochstein 2002; Harris The importance of context to human biol- 2010; Weinstein, Vaupel, and Wachter 2007). ogy is evident across multiple time dimensions The recent expansion of methodological op- (Lasker 1969). In the short term, homeostasis tions for collecting biological samples in non- and allostasis—processes of adaptation to clinical settings has facilitated this effort, and changes in current or anticipated environ- innovative biological measures are increasingly ments (McEwen 1998; Sterling and Ayer 1988)— being incorporated into social science research facilitate physiological or behavioral responses designs and data collection efforts. A new gen- to the shifting demands and opportunities of eration of biosocial research is poised to bridge local environments. For example, a perceived the gap between community- and clinic- based danger or social threat increases the produc- approaches to understanding the dynamic in- tion of cortisol, a hormone that plays a central terplay of biology and social context across the role in mobilizing the body’s response to stress. life course. When the threat is removed, cortisol produc- tion returns to baseline (Gruenewald et al. Integrating Biology into the Social 2004). But repeat, or chronic, exposure to ad- and Behavioral Sciences verse environmental conditions can reset regu- Why should social and behavioral scientists latory set points, resulting in “wear and tear” care about biology? Although we recognize that on key physiological systems (Seeman et al. most, if not all, social and economic outcomes 2001). Lower socioeconomic status—a source have some biological component, social scien- of chronic stress—is associated with high cor- tists—with a few notable exceptions—have gen- tisol in the evening and with a flatter rhythm erally not considered biological processes with of production across the day relative to the nor- specificity or depth. This position does not al- mative pattern of declining cortisol production ways derive from theoretical or epistemological over the day to low levels in the evening (Cohen, stances, and is often due to gaps in data, con- Schwartz, et al. 2006; DeSantis et al. 2007). Lon- straints of training and motivational structures ger term effects of environments on biological that are set within disciplinary frameworks, systems emerge from critical or sensitive peri- and logistical challenges associated with col- ods of development, when exposures can have lecting biological measures in nonclinical set- disproportionate, enduring effects on biologi- tings. Many of these gaps are narrowing. cal structure and function. Continuing with the Putting the bio in biosocial has the potential example of cortisol, individuals born with a to make important contributions

Load more

  25

Copy Link