ABSTRACT
Socialization provides a conceptual framework for understanding how such circumstances shape personal attributes and give rise to durable developmental consequences with implications for adult health and well-being. Socialization is a well-established term within the social sciences but one that has received less attention within public health until relatively recently. Socialization has also been used to explain two more specific and interrelated issues of relevance to public health. First, socialization processes during the formative years of children's lives appear important in terms of developing a range of capacities and vulnerabilities that have implications for future health and well-being. Second, socialization has been proposed as part of the explanation for social inequalities in health. Formal and informal socialization processes are also important in professional work settings. The concept of socialization would suggest that this is in some way linked to parenting practices and processes of socialization more broadly.
