Linking Life Histories and Mental Health: A Person-Centered Strategy

Burton Singer *, Carol D. Ryff †, Deborah Carr ‡, William Magee **

We present a strategy for using longitudinal survey data to identify life history pathways linked with mental health outcomes. The central aim is to begin with richly detailed descriptions of individual lives and, from them, to discern generalizable features of aggregates of multiple lives. Conceptual principles guiding the organization and interpretation of life history information are summarized. Data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) are used to illustrate the specific steps for analyzing life histories of "resilient" women (those with history of depression who report high levels of current well-being). The steps begin with writing narratives of individual life histories, which are then reviewed for commonalities, and subsequently thinned to more generic descriptions. The process culminates with tests of distinguishability, contrasting the "resilient" with three other mental health groups. Illustrating the constructive tensions between idiographic and nomothetic analyses, our approach documents multiple life pathways to resilience. The methodology also underscores the delicate interplay between activities of the mind and machine in facilitating scientific discovery.

* University of Groningen
† University of Wisconsin-Madison
‡ University of Michigan
** University of Toronto