Being Alone and Expectations Lost

A Realist Theory of Neighborhood Context, Stress, Depression, and the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease

Bibliographic Data

ID3411725
AuthorsJ Eastwood (0000-0003-1549-4368, Griffith University, corresponding author), Lynn Kemp (0000-0002-0348-1837, Western Sydney University), Bin Jalaludin (0000-0001-7664-9621, The University of Sydney)
Year2018
Volume8
Issue1
Pages215824401876300
Publication date2018-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSAGE Open (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2158-2440 • E-ISSN: 2158-2440
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/2158244018763004
OpenAlexW2794198512
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited95

We have previously reported on the findings of a critical realist concurrent triangulated mixed method multilevel study that sought to identify and explain complex perinatal contextual social and psychosocial mechanisms that may influence the developmental origins of health and disease. That study used both emergent and construction phases of a realist explanatory theory building method. The purpose of this article is to present the thesis, theoretical framework, propositions, and models explaining neighborhood context, stress, depression, and the developmental origins of health and disease. The analysis draws on an extensive extant literature; intensive (qualitative), extensive (quantitative), and multilevel studies used for phenomena detection, description, and emergent phase theory development; and the abductive and retroductive analysis undertaken for the theory construction phase. Global, economic, social, and cultural mechanisms were identified that explain maternal stress and depression within family and neighborhood contexts. There is a complex intertwining of historical, spatial, cultural, material, and relational elements that contribute to the experiences of loss and nurturing. Emerging is the centrality of social isolation and " expectation lost" as possible triggers of stress and depression not only for mothers but possibly also for others who have their dreams shattered during life's transitions. The thesis: In the neighborhood spatial context, in keeping with critical realist ontology, global-economic, social, and cultural-level generative powers trigger and condition maternal, psychological, and biological-level stress mechanisms, resulting in the phenomenon of maternal depression and alteration of the infants' developmental trajectory

Conceptualization · Developmental psychology · Geography · Psychiatry · Psychosocial · Social environment · Social isolation · Social science · Sociocultural evolution · Sociology · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum · Psychology · Social Psychology