MCH Library Resource Guides as Tools for Life Course Theory
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Life Course Theory (LCT) can be explained by four key concepts -- timeline, timing, environment, and equity -- as defined in Rethinking MCH: The Life Course Model as an Organizing Framework. These concepts can be used to address questions of (1) why health disparities persist across population groups and (2) what factors exist that influence the capacity of individuals and populations to be healthy. |
Click on the arrows
below to access MCH Library Resource Guides that can be used as tools for MCH professionals as they relate to these key concepts of LCT:
Timeline. Today's experiences and exposures influence tomorrow's health.
Pathways or Trajectories. Health pathways or trajectories are built – or diminished – over the lifespan. These resource guides address long-term exposures, experiences, and needs of the MCH community.
- Autism Spectrum Disorders
- Child, Adolescent, and Maternal Mortality
- Domestic Violence
- Family Resource Briefs
- Eating Disorders
- Family Health History
- Family Resource Centers
- Fatherhood
- Fertility and Infertility
- Genetics
- Home Visiting
- Maternal Morbidity and Mortality
- Mental Health in Primary Care
- Nutrition and Physical Activity for Women
- Oral Health for Infants, Children, Adolescents, and Pregnant Women
- Parenting
- Sleep in Infants, Children, Adolescents, and Pregnant Women
- Statistics Sources: Organizations
- Women's Health
Timing. Health trajectories are particularly affected during critical or sensitive periods.
Early Programming. Early experiences can “program” an individual’s future health and development.
- AIDS/HIV in Pregnancy
- Assisted Reproductive Technologies
- Breastfeeding
- Breastfeeding and Working Mothers
- Childbirth
- Depression During and After Pregnancy
- Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs)
- Nutrition During Preconception and Pregnancy
- Preconception and Pregnancy
- Tobacco, Alcohol, and Substance Use During Preconception and Pregnancy
Critical or Sensitive Periods. While adverse events and exposures can have an impact at any point in a person’s life course, the impact is greatest at specific critical or sensitive periods of development.
Infants
- Breastfeeding
- Breastfeeding and Working Mothers
- Immunizations
- Infant Mortality and Pregnancy Loss
- Prematurity
- Screening
Children
- Asthma in Children and Adolescents
- Bullying
- Child Abuse
- Child Care
- Child Developmental Screening
- Child Health Day
- Child Safety
- Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs
- CSHCN: Child Care
- CSHCN: Guidelines and Standards
- CSHCN: Organizations
- Diabetes in Children and Adolescents
- Early Childhood Development
- Emotional, Behavioral, and Mental Health Challenges in Children and Adolescents
- Immunizations
- Nutrition in Children and Adolescents
- Overweight and Obesity in Children and Adolescents
- Physical Activity and Children and Adolescents
- School Health
- Social and Emotional Development in Children and Adolescents
Adolescents (see also Resource Guides listed under "Children" for topics that cover both childhood and adolescence)
Environment. The broader community environment strongly affects the capacity to be healthy.
Encompasing Definition of Environment. Environment is broadly defined to include not only physical factors (e.g., safe housing, areas for recreation, availability of nutritious foods, clean air and water, etc.), but also social and economic factors (e.g., racism, poverty status of families and communities, job opportunities, community or family violence, maternal stress, etc. ), and the capacity of the community to engage in change.
- Child Care
- Community Services Locator
- Disasters and Terrorism
- Effective Community Programs
- Effective Program Practices
- Environmental Health
- Health Information Technology
- Reaching Out to Children and Youth Following Disasters
- Rural Health
Risk and Protective Factors. Risk and protective factors are not limited to individual behavioral patterns or receipt of medical care and social services, but also include factors related to family, neighborhood, community, and social policy.
Equity. Inequality in health reflects more than genetics and personal choice.
LCT speaks to the importance of focusing on health equity from the perspective of population and place and tells us that broad population-level and systems-level changes are needed
- Child, Adolescent, and Maternal Mortality
- Cost-Effectiveness and Cost-benefit Analysis in MCH
- Culturally Competent Services
- Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) Services in Medicaid
- Health Insurance and Access to Care for Children and Adolescents
- Healthy People 2010: Maternal, Infant, and Child Health
- Maternal Morbidity and Mortality
- Minority Health
- Non-English Languages
- Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health
- Spanish-Language Health Resources
Special Health Care Needs
Also see the MCH Library's Life Course and Social Determinants Resource Brief.
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For comments and suggestions, please use the Comments/Feedback form.
Author: John Richards, M.A., MCH Library
March 2011
