Methodological And Theoretical Issues In Research On The (Macro-)Social Determinants Of Mental Health Using Cross-National And Multilevel Perspectives.

Description

Mental Health must be considered a crucial dimension of wellbeing at the individual and societal level. Therefore, the World Health Organization has prominently put the topic on its agenda by creating an action plan to promote mental wellbeing. Moreover, effective health promotion measures require inputs from various disciplines, including sociology, at all stages of implementation. Sociologists’ research on the social determinants of health can be particularly valuable in understanding health risks external to the individual. To gain such insights, researchers typically use qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods. However, when applying a cross-national approach to study the effect of macro-level structures (e.g. the welfare state) on health, comparative survey research can still be considered state of the art.
This contribution aims to further discuss this specific type of research and to demonstrate its potentials for effective health policy. At the same time, it critically reflects on theoretical and methodological issues, that may arise when applying cross-national and multi-level perspectives to mental health research based on population surveys. Among such pitfalls are the availability of suitable data sets, that allow for integrating sociological theories (such as the stress process model or health lifestyle theory) in health research, as well as issues of coverage, measurement, measurement invariance, data-structure, and the application of adequate methods of analysis. To address these issues and make them more visible to researchers, a theoretical model, which systematizes these issues along various stages of the research process and core dimensions of the “total-survey-error” concept, will be presented and discussed.

Period	30 Aug 2024
Event title	16th Conference of the European Sociological Association: Tension, Trust and Transformation
Event type	Conference
Location	Porto, PortugalShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International