Life Course Framework and Areas of Interest
Our work in the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health is grounded in a multilevel life course framework.
What is a multilevel life course framework?
A multilevel life course framework is a conceptual model that integrates diverse evidence about factors leading to a health outcome. The framework classifies those factors into two dimensions: life course (when in a person’s life the factors occur) and socio-ecological level (where in a system or environment the factors occur).
As a department, we use a multilevel life course framework to understand how public health issues result from the complex interplay of biological, behavioral, societal, and other factors across a person’s life and across generations. A multi-level life course approach supports critical thinking and synthesis of evidence about public health challenges and opportunities for intervention. The life course framework enables us to advance health equity through effective public health research and practice.
Areas of Interest
Our department’s coursework, research, and practice incorporate the life course framework in our four domestic and international areas of interest: child and adolescent health; maternal, fetal and perinatal health; population and health; and women's, sexual and reproductive health. Along with content specific to each area of interest, skills emphasized in departmental training include program evaluation, evidence-based advocacy, rigorous methodological training, critically reading literature, and the translation of research for programs and policy.
Child and Adolescent Health
We seek to advance the scientific basis, public health determinants, programmatic strategies and policy considerations that influence and promote child and adolescent health. Grounded in a life course framework, our multi-disciplinary faculty is passionate about promoting the early and lifelong health and well-being of children from infancy through adolescence and the transition to adulthood. We employ biological, developmental, ecological and behavioral approaches to illuminate the interacting influences of family, community, school, environment, policy and systems factors that enhance resilience and positive health among children and youth both domestically and internationally.
Maternal, Fetal & Perinatal Health
The research, teaching and practice activities of faculty in Maternal, Fetal and Perinatal Health address the physical and mental health and well-being of birthing populations prior to, during, and after pregnancy, as well as the health and well-being of their newborns and infants. These activities focus on social, structural, psychosocial, environmental, biological, and health services determinants as viewed through a health equity lens.
Population and Health
Population and Health includes both demographic analyses and population studies, with a special emphasis on applications to health. The former includes the interrelationships between fertility, mortality, migration, marriage and divorce, and the influences of these demographic processes on population size and structure. The latter include the relationships between the demographic processes and population health in particular, and socio-economic and other variables in general.
Women's, Sexual and Reproductive Health
Our goal is to ensure women’s and sexual/reproductive health and wellness for all and eliminate discriminatory barriers. We do so by using a social determinants lens that spans biological roots, interpersonal dynamics, community attributes and norms, and structural forces.