Social geography and rural mental health research.

The study of mental health in the rural context has moved beyond simple notions of what defines rurality. Researchers in the field of rural mental health have realized that what constitutes ‘rural’ in terms of its impact on the mental health and wellbeing of rural residents entails more than physical geography and spatial localities. They have expressed the need to progress the agenda for rural mental health research beyond simple rural-urban comparisons in the prevalence of mental health problems 1 . In so doing, these researchers have pointed to the apparent emphasis on sociodemographic factors in the rural mental health literature as a weakness, and have argued that further research on psychological, attitudinal or contextual factors is warranted 2 .