Environmental exposures such as air pollution, air toxics, noise, wildfire smoke, and extreme heat contribute significantly to the global burden of mental health conditions. Yet, their impacts are unevenly distributed across populations, reflecting entrenched social and spatial heterogeneity. Individuals in low-income or marginalized communities are often more likely to live in polluted areas, experience higher cumulative exposures, and have limited access to healthcare or adaptive resources. Life-course epidemiology offers a powerful framework to examine how such exposures interact with biological susceptibility, behavioral factors, and social determinants across time and have impact on mental health. Understanding how environmental stressors accumulate and interact throughout the life span is essential for uncovering mechanisms of environmental injustice and informing equitable public health interventions.

This Research Topic aims to advance the understanding of how environmental exposures contribute to social inequalities in mental health across the life course. Despite growing recognition of environmental determinants in etiology, substantial knowledge gaps remain regarding cumulative exposure pathways, sensitive developmental periods, and the interplay between physical and social environments.

Building on recent advances in exposure modeling, this topic encourages interdisciplinary studies that link spatio-temporal environmental data with individual-level health and social indicators. Contributions that apply life-course and causal inference approaches to evaluate environmental influences on mental health outcomes are particularly welcome.

By integrating environmental epidemiology, social sciences, and population health research, this topic seeks to identify how differential exposures to hazards—such as air pollution, wildfire and related smoke, noise, and extreme heat—intersect with socioeconomic, racial, and neighborhood disadvantage to shape health trajectories.

We invite original research, systematic reviews, and methodological papers that explore:
• The cumulative and interactive effects of environmental, behavioral, and psychosocial exposures on mental health across the life course.
• Pathways linking social disadvantage to differential exposure and vulnerability to environmental hazards.
• Applications of spatial modeling, causal inference, and longitudinal design to identify critical windows of susceptibility.
• Policy and community-based interventions aimed at reducing environmental and health inequalities.
Interdisciplinary submissions bridging environmental epidemiology, social epidemiology, and health policy are encouraged. Studies leveraging large-scale population data (e.g., national health surveys, administrative datasets, or cohort studies) are especially relevant.

Are you interested in contributing a manuscript to this Research Topic?

Integrating Environmental and Social Determinants of Mental Health Through a Life-Course Lens

Topic Coordinator