Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 Aug 1:36:139-157.
doi: 10.1146/annurev-soc-070308-120011.

Social Relationships and Health Behavior Across Life Course

Debra Umberson  1 , Robert Crosnoe, Corinne Reczek
Affiliations

Social Relationships and Health Behavior Across Life Course

Debra Umberson et al. Annu Rev Sociol. .

Abstract

Sociological theory and research point to the importance of social relationships in affecting health behavior. This work tends to focus on specific stages of the life course, with a division between research on childhood/adolescent and adult populations. Yet recent advances demonstrate that early life course experiences shape health outcomes well into adulthood. We synthesize disparate bodies of research on social ties and health behavior throughout the life course, with attention to explaining how various social ties influence health behaviors at different life stages and how these processes accumulate and reverberate throughout the life course.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptual model for mechanisms linking social ties to health behavior.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ackard D, Neumark-Sztainer D, Story M, Perry C. Parent-child connectedness and behavioral and emotional health among adolescents. Am J Prev Med. 2006;30:59–66. - PubMed
    1. Allen JP, Porter MR, McFarland CF, Marsh P, McElhaney KB. The two faces of adolescents’ success with peers: adolescent popularity, social adaptation, and deviant behavior. Child Dev. 2005;76:747–60. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bachman J, O’Malley P, Schulenberg J, Johnson K, Bryant A, Merline A. The Decline of Substance Use in Young Adulthood: Changes in Social Activities, Roles, and Beliefs. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum; 2002.
    1. Baker TB, Brandon TH, Chassin L. Motivational influences on cigarette smoking. Annu Rev Psychol. 2004;55:463–91. - PubMed
    1. Barnes GM, Reifman AS, Farrell MP, Dintcheff BA. The effects of parenting on the development of adolescent alcohol misuse: a six-wave latent growth curve model. J Marriage Fam. 2000;62:175–86.

LinkOut - more resources