The aim of this dissertation was to investigate the geographic and individual/family-level factors influencing the development of psychopathological problems in young people aged between 10 and 15 years old residing in England and Wales. It includes three multilevel model studies based on data from a nationally representative longitudinal study linked to the 2011 UK census. The two outcome measures investigated were mental health and life satisfaction. Aggregated data from the census captured indicators of social capital, ethnic composition, and the socioeconomic and physical conditions of the neighbourhood. Individual/family-level variables included in the models were: youth age, gender and ethnicity, as well as measures relating to parental health, socioeconomic status and demographic characteristics. Study I revealed that the effects of social capital on deprivation depend on whether it is analysed in terms of mediation or moderation. Social capital attenuated the negative effects of socioeconomic deprivation on mental health and life satisfaction. Specifically, the effect of deprivation is reduced by homogenous friendship networks (bonding), civic engagement (bridging), and low average neighbourhood worry about crime (indicator of general trust). As a moderator, homogenous friendship networks and civic engagement buffered young people residing in more deprived neighbourhoods from greater mental health difficulties and low life satisfaction, whilst having little or no impact on those living in less deprived neighbourhoods. These results highlighted the importance of cultivating various forms of social capital because different components appear to offer different benefits. Study II revealed a negative association between socioeconomic deprivation and mental health among White British youths compared to their ethnic minority counterparts, and that ethnic density had a small but mitigating effect on these outcomes, while parental behaviour increased the gap in mental health differences between the two groups. Study III found a strong association between life satisfaction and ethnicity whereby Asian and Black youths reported better life satisfaction than their White counterparts. This differential association was attenuated by ethnic density and neighbourhood socioeconomic status. Overall, the results point to a strong relationship between the social and physical contexts of the neighbourhood, and mental health and life satisfaction. Although much of the observed variability in outcomes was explained by individual/family-level characteristics, the empirical evidence suggested that it was the intersection between neighbourhood composition and the individual/family predictors, which ultimately determined the direction and strength of mental health difficulties and life satisfaction among young people. The findings also suggest that the neighbourhood is an important arena for policies and initiatives targeted at improving the mental health and life satisfaction of young people.

A growing body of research has outlined that humans gain social rank through two pathways: prestige and dominance. This dual model of social hierarchy advocates that individuals either attain positions of high rank though signals of an ability and willingness to either inflict harm (dominance) or confer benefits (prestige) to group members. While there is growing support for the dual model of social hierarchy, the extant empirical evidence has been cross-sectional and has neglected the impact that time and context has on the efficacy of prestige and dominance as long-term processes. The present research outlines a theoretical framework for the trajectories of prestige, dominance and social rank over time, and further provides longitudinal evidence of their temporal dynamics. In addition, the current research tests the longitudinal associations that prestige and dominance have with social networks, Results of study 1 suggest that, in collaborative task groups, prestige has a positive and bidirectional temporal association with social rank, while the association that dominance has diminished over time. Study 2 indicated that in these task groups those high in prestige were more likely to be asked advice and prestige was transmitted through advice ties but had a limited association with friendship. Those high in dominance were less likely to be nominated as friends, but dominance was transmitted through friendship ties. Results from Study 3 suggest that those high in prestige status were more likely to aid in food sharing and food production, and that the prestige status of an individual’s food sharing and food production partners increased their prestige status over a period of twelve years among the Tsimane forager-horticulturalists of Bolivia. Overall, the present research highlights the distinction between prestige and dominance over time and shows that prestige, dominance, social rank and social networks have bidirectional, dynamic relationships over time.

This thesis consists of three empirical chapters on the work and family demands of parents in the UK and Germany. The chapters are related in their focus on how parents combine employment careers with family demands, the consideration of financial constraints facing families, as well as the longitudinal approach to answering the research questions. First, the Introduction discusses the overall topic, both in broad terms and in relation to the individual chapters. Chapter 1 analyses the effect of fatherhood on men’s work hours and work hour preferences in the UK. The study shows that it is not fatherhood alone that has an effect on men’s work hours, but that it also depends on the partners’ employment status. It is also shown that the effect of fatherhood in this respect is mainly limited to households with children between one and five years of age. Chapter 2 analyses how UK mothers’ and fathers’ work hour demands affect the time they spend with their children in structured outdoor leisure activities, eating dinner together, and talking about important matters. Parents who work relatively long hours spend less structured outdoor leisure time with their children than other parents, but only in households where both parents are employed. For fathers, longer work hours also affect their frequency of eating with the family, while talking about important matters is not affected. The focus of Chapter 3 is on the relevance, in Germany, of both partners’ resources and especially the impact of career uncertainties for mothers’ returns into full-time and part-time employment after the birth of a child. The results show that both partners’ earning prospects play an important role for mothers’ (re-)entry decisions. Also interesting is that mothers seem to compensate for the negative effects of their partners’ unemployment experiences with increased labour force participation. The thesis finishes with a conclusion that summarises the results of my research.

This study investigates the poor mental health of unemployed middle-aged men (with women as a reference for comparison) in Hong Kong, who were unemployed and isolated socially in what is officially described as a new town, Tin Shui Wai. The study also explores the different aspects of social capital that may improve mental health for middle-aged individuals, drawing on data from ten in-depth interviews with five men and five women, two focus groups with five men and six women and a survey using questionnaires completed by 188 men and 215 women. The results showed that men in the sample had poorer mental health than women. In particular, levels of depression and alcohol abuse were higher in the men than the women. By contrast, women in the sample manifested more anxiety than the men. The findings also showed that unemployment had more negative effects on men than on women, with the men having more free time but nothing to do, feeling stressed, going out less with family members, drinking more alcohol and so on. Drawing on theories of social capital (Lin et al. 1985, McKenzie 2006), I argue that the poor mental health among men was associated with weak social capital. The data showed that for both men and women, social capital could have a positive association with reducing depression and anxiety. In particular, for men, community networks and social support had a positive association with reducing depression and alcohol abuse. For women, group membership, community networks and social cohesion had a positive association with reducing depression and anxiety. Based on these findings, I suggest an approach that focuses on increasing social capital to promote mental health among men and women. The approach argues for the need to introduce policies and strategies to promote social capital at the community and individual level for men, and at the community level for women.

This study presents a practitioner perspective analysis of how gangs, gang members and their associated risks are perceived and policed within the organisational structure of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). Drawing on a large-scale survey and in-depth interviews with a variety of gang practitioners, it contrasts and critiques specialist, analytical and local police practice in conceptualising, mapping, monitoring and policing within the gang milieu, focusing on police and partnership use and understanding of the primary tool for gang member management, the MPS Gangs Matrix. Findings highlight a perception of the gang at odds with that captured by the static intelligence mechanisms embedded in operational practice and highlight the tensions created by the complex intra-organisational structures in terms of remit and understanding. It identifies an emerging tendency to align the gang with organised crime; utilising elements of the interconnected theoretical frameworks of interactionism (specifically the activities of the labellers), contextual constructionism, and institutional theory to consider the aetiology and consequences of these actions in the context of policing policy and practice.

This thesis argues that the transition from traditional Roman ideas of sexual behaviour to idealised Christian sexual behaviour was a reactionary process, for which the period from AD 390 to AD 520 offers a crucial key stage. During this era, the Roman West underwent significant socio-political changes, resulting in warfare and violent conflict, which created a pressurised and traumatic environment for people who endured them. In this context, the rhetoric of divine punishment for sinful behaviour was strongly linked with sexual acts, causing ideas on sexual mores to develop. The thesis highlights three key aspects of these developments. Firstly, warfare necessitated changes in Christian doctrines on marriages and rape, resulting from collective and cultural trauma. Secondly, sexually impure acts of incest and prostitution were defiling to the religious collective yet the consequences of these were negotiated on a case-to-case basis, reflecting adaptation. Thirdly, traditional Roman ideas of polygyny and homosexual acts overrode Christian ideas on the same. After discussing these three aspects, this work offers a revised interpretation of Salvian of Marseilles’s De gubernatione Dei to illuminate the purpose of the sexual polemic contained in his work – a task that no existing scholarship has attempted to undertake. Daily realities and conflicts drove discourses on sexual mores forwards, and this thesis outlines how this occurred in practice, arguing that attitudes to sex were deeply rooted in secular contexts and were reactionary in nature. This examination of attitudes to sexual mores reveals a re-moulding of pre-existing Roman cultural norms, rather than a revolutionising Christian overtake. The thesis concludes that the ‘Christianisation’ of late Roman society was a process conditioned by contemporary events and concerns, which contributes to interpretations on the dynamics of cultural change in the late antique era.

The thesis presents research on the effects of a Mind-Body (M-B) training programme on emotional competencies, stress and job satisfaction. This is of practical importance for the workplace, as stress and job satisfaction are important management issues. The theoretical contributions of this research relate to the debate around whether emotional competencies can be developed or not, the mediating role of emotional competencies between the intensity of M-B training, and stress and job satisfaction, and the underlying mechanism of these effects, i.e how M-B training functions and hence why the effects occur. The M-B training programme lasted eight weeks and was tested on 106 participants. The participants were split into two groups: an experimental and a control group. The experimental group practiced the training programme, while the control did not. Dependent variables were measured using questionnaires both before and after the training programme. The participants had an open question at post-intervention survey about how they felt during M-B practice. The research also included a qualitative longitudinal study. Nine participants were interviewed immediately after the M-B training intervention, and again one year later in order to see whether the effects were sustained. Hence, this research was conducted as a longitudinal mixed methods design. The results reveal that M-B training has an effect on emotional competencies, stress and job satisfaction. These improved between 10-26%. The study also found that the ability to manage and regulate emotions play a mediating role between the intensity of M-B training and perceived stress, but not job satisfaction. The qualitative data suggests that mental skills might play a mediating role. Finally, the results reveal that physical, emotional, mental and spiritual mechanisms explain how M-B training works.

The thesis provides evidence about relationships between adverse exposures, psychological responses to them and immune dysregulation. The approach taken is informed by theories about the life-course, the stress process, the stress response and the inflammatory theory of depression. The first two empirical chapters provide evidence about the contribution of psychosocial factors to immune dysregulation. Immune dysregulation is measured by onsets of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis during adulthood. Comprehensive life-course data are used to provide valuable evidence about the epidemiology of each disease. More specifically, new evidence is provided about the psychosocial pathways that lead to disease onset. After adjustment for material adversities, social adversities predict onsets of each disease. Chronic as opposed to acute adversities are salient for rheumatoid arthritis onset, which is consistent with existing theory that chronic stress contributes to immune dysregulation. Depressive symptoms mediate an association between childhood adversity and asthma onset decades later. A small but consistent association between depressive symptoms and asthma onset soon afterwards may reflect psychological consequences of chronic inflammation preceding asthma diagnosis. The third empirical chapter tests prospective associations between chronic inflammation and depressive symptoms. It finds that chronic inflammation predicts depressive symptoms and provides new evidence that these associations are mediated by factors associated with sickness behaviours. Findings indicate the relevance of psychosocial pathways to the development of immune-mediated diseases and the potential involvement of immune behaviours in psychological symptoms. Practitioners and policy makers working with people who have conditions characterised by immune dysregulation should consider the psychological predictors and consequences of immune dysregulation. More research in this area is needed and this would be facilitated by the development and inclusion in surveys of well-validated measures of psychological and biological stress and of the psychological and behavioural correlates of sickness behaviours thought to be induced by inflammation.

The Christian church in the southeast United States is a dominant institution that, if mobilised, has the potential to be a powerful force for environmental engagement and the promotion of pro-environmental behaviour. In an effort to advance understanding of the barriers to such engagement and behaviour change in the region, this thesis considers, in the context of religious Bible Belt communities, 1) the relative influence of different forms of social power on grassroots pro-environmental behaviour change, 2) the alignment of environmental and prosocial engagement, and 3) the characteristics of effective programmes for stimulating grassroots pro-environmental behaviour change. It approaches these areas of research from three different angles: an interdisciplinary review of the literature on behaviour change models, social power, framing and environmental communication more broadly; a Multi-Grounded Theory analysis of 20 semi-structured interviews with leaders in environmental and Christian organisations in the southern US; and a statistical analysis of a web-based survey of self-identified Christians across the politically and religiously conservative region (N = 400, across eleven states) regarding participants’ attitudes towards, participation in and beliefs about environmental and prosocial issues. Key findings include the identification of the ‘champion’ and ‘bridge’ models of action in religious organisations, as well as evidence for distinct (and opposing) influences of religious beliefs (orthodoxy) and religious practices (religiosity) on the gap between prosocial and environmental engagement. The thesis also introduces a new researcher reflexivity methodology for use in qualitative research. Based on the findings, the thesis argues that reducing the liberal stigma of environmentalism is paramount in mobilising Christians for climate change action. To this end, a sustained focus on encouraging specific pro-environmental behaviours framed in terms of altruistic concerns should be undertaken to encourage pro-environmental actions in southern Christian populations.

Despite being the most common reason for admission to psychiatric inpatient services in the UK (Bowers, 2005), no evidence-based treatment currently exists for self-harm in this setting (Turner, Austin & Chapman, 2014; Winter et al., 2007). Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) has found promising results in treating self-harm in outpatient settings (Linehan, 1993a). More recently, there have been favourable results from a DBT-informed group in an inpatient setting (Gibson, Booth, Davenport, Keogh & Owens, 2014), however the intervention was longer than the average stay on an inpatient ward (23 days; Health and Social Care Information Centre, 2014). The aim of the current study was to assess the feasibility of a novel DBT-informed group for people who self-harm within the average length of an inpatient stay. The ‘Coping with Crisis’ (CwC) group protocol was compiled using DBT skills (Linehan, 1993a), with particular focus on crisis management strategies. In line with the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) guidelines for feasibility studies (Eldridge et al., 2016), the aim was to collect data on the rates of recruitment, retention, outcome measure completion and participant feedback, in order to inform the design of a main study. Twenty-four participants were recruited from an inpatient ward in a National Health Service (NHS) Trust. Results suggest that the clinicians and participants found the CwC group acceptable and it was found to be feasible to run the group and research study on an inpatient ward. However, the study experienced several challenges in terms of recruiting to target (80% achieved), retaining participants in the treatment groups and completed post-intervention outcome measures (n = 9; 38%). This information, in addition to feedback from the participants can be used to inform adaptions to the study design and make recommendations to improve outcomes for future research.