The effects of low-pay and unemployment on psychological well-being: A logistic regression approach

Theodossiou, Ioannis

doi:10.1016/s0167-6296(97)00018-0

Cited by 357 publications

(219 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Thus, we limit our interpretations to the comparison between those younger and the older unemployed people for whom a clinically important symptom level is compellingly supported by the empirical material. In that sense, despite the fact that the young and older unemployed group give similar answers to the subjective well-being measure, our results provide partial support for the trends documented in the literature suggesting that older people experience a larger negative effect of unemployment on psychological well-being compared to younger unemployed people (Breslin and Mustard, 2003;Briar et al 1980;Goldsmith, Veum, and Darity, 1996;Theodossiou, 1998). We have demonstrated that a global measure such as subjective well-being which is widely used in the research literature, such as in the European Values Survey (EVS, 2015); in fact, can conceal important and interesting differences.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

Unemployment and Subjective Well-being: Comparing Younger and Older Job Seekers

Pultz

Teasdale

2017

Scandinavian Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology

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We examine the link between unemployment and subjective well-being by introducing historically sensitive variables related to neoliberal ideology and policies such as measures of self-blame, shame, work ethic and flexibility. Drawing on a survey study we find that young job seekers (N = 357) have a significantly lower self-reported subjective well-being than employed persons of the same age (N = 183). Young and older unemployed people (N = 52) report the same level of subjective well-being; however, older unemployed people score significantly higher on clinical measures of depression, anxiety and stress. In contrast, younger job seekers score significantly higher on measures relating to the neoliberal development. We identify a minority of people who do not perceive themselves as unemployed even though they formally are, and drawing on governmentality studies we infer them to be entrepreneurs. We highlight the need to recognize heterogeneity and historical sensitivity when addressing the complex relationship between subjective well-being and unemployment. The implications of this empirical study are that different groups might benefit from different interventions and that policy makers should take this into consideration.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

Unemployment and Subjective Well-being: Comparing Younger and Older Job Seekers

Pultz

Teasdale

2017

Scandinavian Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology

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“…A case study, carried out in Australia, compared 193 unemployed people and 206 low wage earners and concluded that the latter are significantly better off than the former in terms of life satisfaction and other dimensions of mental well-being (Hassall et al 2004). Theodossiou (1998) obtained similar results for Britain with a larger sample drawn from the 1992 wave of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). In contrast, a study based on the first wave on the Australian household panel HILDA focused on reported job satisfaction as indicator for employment quality and found "that being in employment but in a job in which one has low job satisfaction has an even greater detrimental effect on reported life satisfaction than unemployment" (Dockery 2003).…”

Section: Theoretical Considerations and Previous Evidencementioning

confidence: 56%

Is Any Job Better than No Job? Life Satisfaction and Re-employment

2010

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Using data for West Germany from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we analyse the impact of transitions from unemployment to full-time employment on life satisfaction, with special focus on the influence of job quality. We apply various indicators of job quality (self-reported job satisfaction, wages, type of contract, and indicators of the fit between the worker and job requirements). We control for the influence of income changes and other factors affecting life satisfaction, using a conditional logit estimator. Results suggest that job quality only matters to some extent, and often people in bad jobs are still better off than those who remain unemployed. This effect is statistically significant for most indicators of job quality, except for workers with low job satisfaction and for those whose new job is much worse than their pre-unemployment job.We would like to thank Gesine Stephan, conference participants at the ISQOLS conference 2007 in San Diego, USA and the 2008 meeting of the IARIW in Portoroz, Slovenia, as well as seminar participants in Nuremberg, Göttingen and Vienna and three anonymous referees for valuable comments and suggestions on earlier versions. All remaining errors are ours.

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“…Burchell 1994;Cheng and Chan 2008;Green 2011;Nolan et al 2000;Wichert 2002) and indirectly from studies of ex-post indicators such as job loss and unemployment (e.g. Di Tella et al 2003;Theodossiou 1998). Insecurity can also entail uncertainty over valued job features within the current job, including fears of unfair treatment or loss of job status, though for lack of data in successive waves of our data series we are unable to test whether such fears may add to an explanation for changing well-being .…”

Section: Insecuritymentioning

confidence: 99%

Job-Related Well-Being Through the Great Recession

Green¹,

Felstead

Gallie

et al. 2014

J Happiness Stud

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We study how job-related well-being (measured by Warr's 'Enthusiasm' and 'Contentment' scales) altered through the Great Recession, and how this is related to changing job quality. Using nationally representative data for Britain, we find that jobrelated well-being was stable between 2001 and 2006, but then declined between 2006 and 2012. We report relevant changes in job quality. In modelling the determinants of jobrelated well-being, we confirm several previously-studied hypotheses and present some new findings: downsizing, work re-organisation, decreased choice, and linking pay to organisational performance each reduce well-being; indicators of skills challenge in jobs have more of a positive association with Enthusiasm than with Contentment, while effort has a more negative association with Contentment than with Enthusiasm. Our estimates are largely orthogonal to the effects of personality traits and demographic controls on wellbeing. Using a standard decomposition, we find that the 2006-2012 fall in job-related wellbeing is partly accounted for by accelerations in the pace of workplace change, rising job insecurity, increased effort and changing participation.Keywords Effort Á Job insecurity Á Downsizing Á Performance-related pay Á Organisational participation Á Job-related well-being Á Task discretion Á Skill IntroductionThis paper is concerned with what happens to the job-related well-being of those in employment in a major recession. Periods of economic crisis and stagnation are typically seen as occasions for accelerated changes in employment and production relations. Whether through Schumpeterian creative destruction or through a shift in the balance of power, the opportunity may be taken to renew working methods, relationships and pay bargains, with consequences for both employers and their employees. Major economic downturns are known to generate falls in general well-being (as manifested in overall life satisfaction and health indicators) which extend beyond those rendered involuntarily unemployed to the broader workforce who feel less secure and to their dependants (Burchell 1994;Di Tella et al. 2003;Green 2011). The focus here, however, is on how indicators of job-related wellbeing (feelings about one's job) are changed over a recession, and on how this is related to changing job quality. To investigate this, we examine the specific instance of employees in Britain before and after the 'Great Recession' of 2008-2009.Since job-related well-being is an end in itself, studying it needs no additional motivation. Nevertheless, there is evidence that job-related well-being is associated with productivity, absenteeism and labour turnover (e.g. De Neve et al. 2013;Warr 2007;Zelenski et al. 2008)-even if much remains to be done to determine the magnitude of the causal effects. In recent years well-being-including in the domain of work-has been assigned a place in the 'beyond GDP' agenda (Stiglitz et al. 2009). A better understanding of various dimensions of well-being at an aggregate level are re...

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The effects of low-pay and unemployment on psychological well-being: A logistic regression approach

Cited by 357 publications

References 16 publications

Unemployment and Subjective Well-being: Comparing Younger and Older Job Seekers

Unemployment and Subjective Well-being: Comparing Younger and Older Job Seekers

Is Any Job Better than No Job? Life Satisfaction and Re-employment

Job-Related Well-Being Through the Great Recession

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