Becoming modern after all these years: social change and mental health in Latin America

Abstract

This paper takes a critical standpoint, both theoretical and methodological, to revisit Inkeles and Smith's hypothesis on the association between modernization and mental health. First it is proposed a critical evaluation of the premises of the conceptual treatment of the relationships between social change and mental health prevailing during the past two decades. Secondly, results from epidemiologic research on the psychological outcomes of social development in Latin America are reviewed, emphasizing the methodological improvements which occurred during the past two decades. Selected findings of an epidemiological survey recently conducted in urban Brazil are then presented, focusing on a case-control analysis of the socio-economic correlates of individual mental health. Finally, some of the implications of the new evidence concerning the social change and mental health hypothesis are discussed, as an attempt to interpret these findings in the light of recent developments of theories on social change and health in the contemporary world.