Review of 30 Years of Longitudinal Studies on the Association Between Job Insecurity and Health and Well‐Being: Is There Causal Evidence?

Abstract

Objective: In this review article, we present an overview of the results of longitudinal studies on the consequences of job insecurity for health and well-being. We discuss the evidence for normal causation ("Does job insecurity influence outcomes?"), reversed causation ("Do specific outcomes predict job insecurity?"), and reciprocal causation. We also review the various theories used to develop the hypotheses and whether theory has been used at all. Method: Scientific and scholarly databases were searched to find all existing articles. We found 57 longitudinal studies published since 1987 in a variety of countries throughout the world. All articles were summarised in an encompassing table. Results:The results show strong evidence for normal causation, in which job insecurity influences both psychological well-being and somatic health over time. The results were somewhat dependent on the type of outcome variable analysed, with clear evidence regarding exhaustion (burnout), general mental/psychological well-being, self-rated health, and a variety of somatic complaints. For aspects such as job satisfaction, work engagement, and psychosomatic complaints, the results suggested normal causation in one half to two thirds of the studies only. Reversed or reciprocal causation was rarely studied, and when studied, rarely found. Conclusions: Job insecurity influences health and well-being over time, rather than the other way round. Limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Effort-reward imbalance and work-home interference: a two-wave study among European male nurses

“…those aspects of the job that cost effort and investment) and lack of resources predict energy depletion, health impairment and work-home interference. Our results are also in line with 30 years of research conducted from a general stress perspective, which shows that job insecurity has direct negative consequences for mental well-being and work-home interference (De Witte, Pienaar, & De Cuyper, 2016). .19*** a Note that the meaning of "reward" is qualitatively different across countries b Only this path is no longer significant for the remaining sample when the Italian sub-sample is excluded from the total sample.…”

“…Our results are more in line with other well-validated job design and work-stress theories (e.g. Bakker & Demerouti, 2014;De Witte et al, 2016). We therefore advise testing the effects of effort and lack of reward and their possible interaction effects separately.…”

Can job insecurity be managed? Evaluating an organizational-level intervention addressing the negative effects of restructuring

“…Recent studies have documented that both quantitative job insecurity (De Witte, 2005;Sverke, Hellgren, & Näswall, 2002) and qualitative job insecurity have negative effects, such as poor well-being, low commitment to the organisation, and high levels of depressive symptoms (De Witte et al, 2010;Vander Elst et al, 2014). Job insecurity, in general, has also been found to be a long-term predictor of ill health (De Witte et al, 2016;Hellgren & Sverke, 2003), which supports the need for interventions that focus directly on reducing job insecurity caused by organisational restructuring.…”

On the scarring effects of job insecurity (and how they can be explained)

“…The latter is an important addition to a recently published overview of longitudinal studies, showing that job insecurity causes poorer health and well-being, rather than vice versa (14). One of the possible weaknesses of the Barrech et al study relates to its design: subjective well-being was only measured at T2 after retirement, leading to a prospective study rather than a full-panel design, in which all variables are measured at both time points (15).…”