Chapter 1. Introduction to the Handbook of Life Course Health-Development Science -- SECTION I: EMERGING FRAMEWORKS -- Chapter 2. The Emerging Theoretical Framework of Life Course Health-Development -- SECTION II: LIFE STAGES -- Chapter 3. Preconception and Prenatal Factors and Metabolic Risk -- Chapter 4. Early Childhood and the Life Course: The State of the Science and Proposed Research Priorities -- Chapter 5. Middle Childhood: An Evolutionary-Developmental Synthesis -- Chapter 6. Adolescent Health: A Relational Developmental Systems Perspective -- Chapter 7. Emerging Adulthood as a Critical Stage in the Life Course -- Chapter 8. Pregnancy Characteristics and Women’s Cardiovascular Health -- SECTION III: LIFE COURSE ORIGINS AND CONSEQUENCES OF MAJOR HEALTH CONDITIONS AND ISSUES -- Chapter 9. Early in the Life Course: Time for Obesity Prevention -- Chapter 10. Pediatric Type 2 Diabetes: Prevention and Treatment through a Life Course Health-Development Framework -- Chapter 11. Life Course Health-Development in Autism Spectrum Disorders -- Chapter 12. Self-Regulation -- Chapter 13. A Life Course Health-Development Perspective on Oral Health -- Chapter 14. Life Course Health-Development Outcomes after Prematurity: Developing a Community, Clinical, and Translational Research Agenda to Optimize Health, Behavior and Functioning -- Chapter 15. A Life Course Approach to Hearing Health -- Chapter 16. Chronic Kidney Disease: A Life Course Health-Development Perspective -- SECTION IV: CROSS-CUTTING TOPICS IN LIFE COURSE HEALTH-DEVELOPMENT -- Chapter 17. Growth and Life Course Health-Development -- Chapter 18. From Epidemiology to Epigenetics: Evidence for the Importance of Nutrition to Optimal Health-Development across the Life Course -- Chapter 19. How Socioeconomic Disadvantages Get Under the Skin and Into the Brain to Influence Health-Development across the Lifespan -- Chapter 20. Health Disparities: A Life Course Health-Development Perspective and Future Research Directions -- SECTION V: METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES -- Chapter 21. Core Principles of Life Course Health-Development Methodology and Analytics -- Chapter 22. Epidemiological Study Designs: Traditional and Novel Approaches to Advance Life Course Health-Development Research -- Chapter 23. Using the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY) to Conduct Life Course Analyses -- Chapter 24. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to Conduct Life Course Health-Development Analysis -- Chapter 25. Using the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) in Life Course Health-Development Research -- SECTION VI: FUTURE DIRECTIONS -- Chapter 26. Life Course Research Agenda (LCRA), Version 1.0.

Open Access

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This handbook synthesizes and analyzes the growing knowledge base on life course health development (LCHD) from the prenatal period through emerging adulthood, with implications for clinical practice and public health. It presents LCHD as an innovative field with a sound theoretical framework for understanding wellness and disease from a lifespan perspective, replacing previous medical, biopsychosocial, and early genomic models of health. Interdisciplinary chapters discuss major health concerns (diabetes, obesity), important less-studied conditions (hearing, kidney health), and large-scale issues (nutrition, adversity) from a lifespan viewpoint.  In addition, chapters address methodological approaches and challenges by analyzing existing measures, studies, and surveys. The book concludes with the editors’ research agenda that proposes priorities for future LCHD research and its application to health care practice and health policy. Topics featured in the Handbook include:  The prenatal period and its effect on child obesity and metabolic outcomes. Pregnancy complications and their effect on women’s cardiovascular health. A multi-level approach for obesity prevention in children. Application of the LCHD framework to autism spectrum disorder. Socioeconomic disadvantage and its influence on health development across the lifespan. The importance of nutrition to optimal health development across the lifespan. The Handbook of Life Course Health Development is a must-have resource for researchers, clinicians/professionals, and graduate students in developmental psychology/science; maternal and child health; social work; health economics; educational policy and politics; and medical law as well as many interrelated subdisciplines in psychology, medicine, public health, mental health, education, social welfare, economics, sociology, and law.