Job Insecurity and Mental Health: The Moderating Role of Coping Strategies From a Gender Perspective

Abstract

Job insecurity is a growing phenomenon, typical of an employment context characterised by high rates of temporary work and unemployment. Previous research has shown a direct relationship between job insecurity and mental health impairment. The present analysis goes into this relationship in depth, studying the moderating role of coping strategies and predicting that men and women implement different types of strategies. A sample of 1.008 workers is analysed, 588 women and 420 men. The Tobin CSI scale was used to analyse the coping strategies, in addition to JIS-8 to assess job insecurity, the MOS Perceived Social Support Survey and the GHQ-28 test to evaluate mental health. Then, a hierarchical linear regression was designed to study the moderating role of 8 coping strategies of job insecurity and 4 mental health subscales in men and women, separately. Results illustrate that coping strategies play a moderating role in the relationship between job insecurity and mental health. However, the aggravating role of disengagement coping strategies is more relevant than the buffering role of engagement strategies. On the other hand, women implement a greater number of coping strategies, with more positive results for mental health. Also, in the relationship between job insecurity and mental health the most important strategies are the ones related to social interaction inside and outside an organisation, and these are the main ones used by women. It therefore follows that strengthening rich social relationships inside and outside the working environment is a guarantee of well-being.

Job insecurity, financial threat and mental health in the COVID-19 context: The buffer role of perceived social support

“…It has also been found that women use this social resource more often and more efficiently than men [50]. These results were confirmed in a recent study [51] that showed when women actively resort to their social support network, this acts as a buffer for the negative consequences of job insecurity. These conclusions agree with those proposed by [48] that the effectiveness of this interpersonal-social resource depends on it serving specifically to manage the stressful situation.…”

Perceived Job Insecurity and Anxiety. A Multilevel Analysis on Male and Female Workers in European Countries

“…The findings of this study, which prove a significant association between perceived job insecurity and anxiety in the European labor force, confirm research in the field documenting that women seem to react negatively, and in the same way as men do, to adverse work and employment conditions (Pelfrene et al, 2003;László et al, 2010;Buffel et al, 2015;Reichert and Tauchmann, 2017;Menéndez-Espina et al, 2019). The magnitude of the association between job security and anxiety may be regarded as moderate and such result is also consistent with previous evidence (László et al, 2010;Buffel et al, 2015).…”

Job insecurity and subjective sleep quality: The role of spillover and gender

“…Studying gender as a moderator is important because, while both men and women are likely to experience some level of job insecurity, gendered societal expectations and work‐related identity (Mauno & Kinnunen, 2002) and gender‐specific coping mechanism (Menéndez‐Espina et al, 2019) may lead to a different relationship between job insecurity, negative work‐to‐family spillover (hereafter referred to as negative work spillover) and sleep quality among men and women. Past research on the role of gender in the relationship of job insecurity and individual and work outcomes has demonstrated mixed findings, with the vast majority of research concluding that there is a greater sensitivity to job insecurity among men than among women (e.g., De Witte, 1999; Ferrie, Shipley, Stansfeld, & Marmot, 2002; Levenstein et al, 2001; Richter, 2011).…”