The Role of Unemployment and Job Insecurity for the Well-Being of Young Europeans: Social Inequality as a Macro-Level Moderator

Täht, Kadri; Xanthopoulou, Despoina; Figgou, Lia; Kostouli, Marialena; Unt, Marge

doi:10.1007/s10902-019-00184-w

Cited by 30 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Our findings strongly support the association between unemployment and PD, and they align with the knowledge that has accumulated over the years in regard to the general population [ 25 , 27 , 38 ] and to young people [ 23 , 30 ]. This association remains even after controlling for demographics, financial strain, emerging financial strain in the wake of the pandemic, and the various psychological resources included here.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…A review by Reneflot and Evensen [ 23 ] on the PD consequences of unemployment in young adults indicated that unemployment increased the risk of PD, even after initial mental health status and confounding factors were accounted for. The study of Taht and colleagues [ 30 ] showed that unemployment impaired young Europeans’ cognitive (life satisfaction) and affective (negative affect) well-being, and Thern, de Munter, Hemmingsson, and Rasmussen [ 31 ] demonstrated the long-term effects of youth unemployment on their mental health. Finally, the long-term unemployed carry a markedly higher burden of mental illness compared to employed individuals and those who are unemployed for only a short time, and the burden of disease increases with the duration of unemployment [ 15 , 17 , 32 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Unemployment and Psychological Distress among Young People during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Psychological Resources and Risk Factors

Achdut

Refaeli

2020

IJERPH

212

151

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In the wake of COVID-19, unemployment and its potential deleterious consequences have attracted renewed interest. We examined (1) the association between unemployment, occurring upon the coronavirus outbreak, and psychological distress among Israeli young people (20–35-years-old); (2) the associations between various psychological resources/risk factors and psychological distress; and (3) whether these resources and risk factors were moderators in the unemployment-psychological distress link. A real-time survey based on snowball sampling was conducted during the month of April 2020 (N = 390). We employed hierarchical linear models to explore associations between unemployment, psychological resources, risk factors, and psychological distress. Unemployment was independently associated with greater psychological distress. Perceived trust, optimism, and sense of mastery decreased psychological distress, whereas financial strain and loneliness during the crisis increased this distress. The effect of unemployment on psychological distress did not depend on participants’ resource and risk factor levels. Policymakers must develop and extend health initiatives aimed at alleviating the mental health consequences of COVID-19-related unemployment and promote labor market interventions to help young job seekers integrate into employment. These measures, which are in line with the UN sustainable development goals, should be seen as an important route to promote public health.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unemployment and Psychological Distress among Young People during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Psychological Resources and Risk Factors

Achdut

Refaeli

2020

IJERPH

212

151

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“…Unemployment rates for young workers aged 16–24 years have almost triple-folded from 8.4% to 24.4%, with increases observed from 2.8% to 11.3% for those aged 25+ years during the beginning of the pandemic ( Gould and Kassa, 2020 ). The uncertainty and worry brought by COVID-19-induced unemployment are linked to increased psychological distress ( Achdut and Refaeli, 2020 ) such as feelings of hopelessness or depression; such associations between unemployment and mental health is consistent with pre-pandemic studies ( Reneflot and Evensen, 2014 ; Taht et al, 2019 ). A growing concern is the chronic nature of financial concerns on young adult mental health.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 62%

Concerns about the social climate, finances, and COVID-19 risk on depression and anxiety: An analysis on U.S. young adults across two waves

Liu¹,

Wong²,

Hyun³

et al. 2022

Journal of Psychiatric Research

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Concerns regarding contracting COVID-19 and finances may be risks to mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social climate concerns may be another risk, given U.S. protests taking place during this period. We tested the hypothesis that concerns about COVID-19 risk, finances, and social climate would predict clinically significant levels of depression, anxiety, and comorbid depression and anxiety in young adults. 782 U.S. young adults (18–30 years), initially recruited through convenience sampling (social media, email listservs), completed online surveys at Wave 1 (April–August 2020) and Wave 2 (September 2020–March 2021). The primary outcomes included scoring above the cut off for depressive (PHQ-8 ≥ 10) or anxiety symptoms (GAD ≥10). Approximately 41% reported depression and 47% reported anxiety at Wave 1; rates did not differ at Wave 2. Individuals with greater financial concerns were 14% more likely to score high on depressive symptoms; those with COVID-19 risk concerns and social climate concerns were 21% and 54% more likely, respectively, to score high on generalized anxiety. Those with social climate and financial concerns were 52% and 15% more likely, respectively, to score high on comorbid depression and anxiety symptoms. Analyses controlled for Wave 1 symptoms. We provide evidence highlighting the roles of social climate and COVID-19 risk concerns on anxiety, and financial concerns on depression in young adults. Public health campaigns should acknowledge broader societal issues that have taken place as a source of mental health distress, beyond those driven by the pandemic (e.g., isolation and lockdowns).

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“…Lastly, we extend the knowledge regarding the moderating role of country-level characteristics, which so far mainly consists of objective factors regarding social policies or economic measures (Carr and Chung 2014;Voßemer et al 2018;Karabchuk and Soboleva 2019). We add on the current research on cultural country-level moderators (Täht et al 2019) by assuming social cohesion to substitute the function of social contacts and status within work environment. This moderation effect occurs to be existent for the upwards comparative perspective rather than for the downwards one.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Eventually, when examining the effect heterogeneity across different countries, for policy making it is not only relevant whether there are differences across countries, but also which country-specific characteristics cause these differences. Previous literature shows that some economic macro-level factors like employment protection legislation (EPL), gross domestic product (GDP), unemployment rate, subjective and objective income inequality as well as other social policies do moderate the effects of fixed-term employment on well-being (Carr and Chung 2014;Voßemer et al 2018;Karabchuk and Soboleva 2019;Täht et al 2019). Nevertheless, we lack knowledge on whether besides the perceived income inequality, there are other cultural country-level characteristics explaining the variation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

The Effect of Fixed-Term Employment on Well-Being: Disentangling the Micro-Mechanisms and the Moderating Role of Social Cohesion

Scheuring

2020

Soc Indic Res

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This paper examines the impact of fixed-term employment on well-being from a cross-national comparative perspective by testing (1) the effect heterogeneity across European countries, (2) to which extent Jahoda’s Latent Deprivation Model provides a sufficient micro-level explanation for the underlying mechanisms and (3) whether the macro-level factor of social cohesion weakens the micro-level impacts. We investigate the effects in both an upwards (permanent employment) and a downwards (unemployment) comparative control group design. Due to the mediating role of social contacts on the micro-level, we assume social cohesion on the country-level to moderate the main effects: A high degree of societal affiliation should substitute the function of social contacts in the work environment of individuals. Using microdata from the European Social Survey (ESS) 2012 for 23 countries and applying multilevel estimation procedures, we find that there is a remarkable variation in the effects across countries. Even though in each country fixed-term employees have a lower subjective well-being compared to permanent ones, the point estimates vary from .17 to 1.19 units. When comparing fixed-term employees to unemployed individuals, the coefficients even range from − .27 to 1.25 units. More specifically, a negative effect indicates that having a fixed-term contract is worse than unemployment in some countries. Moreover, pooled linear regression models reveal that Jahoda’s Latent Deprivation Model explains about three-quarters of the micro-level effect sizes for both directions. Eventually, social cohesion on the country-level diminishes the individual-level well-being differences between fixed-term employees and permanent individuals but not between fixed-term employees and the unemployed.

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The Role of Unemployment and Job Insecurity for the Well-Being of Young Europeans: Social Inequality as a Macro-Level Moderator

Cited by 30 publications

References 46 publications

Unemployment and Psychological Distress among Young People during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Psychological Resources and Risk Factors

Unemployment and Psychological Distress among Young People during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Psychological Resources and Risk Factors

Concerns about the social climate, finances, and COVID-19 risk on depression and anxiety: An analysis on U.S. young adults across two waves

The Effect of Fixed-Term Employment on Well-Being: Disentangling the Micro-Mechanisms and the Moderating Role of Social Cohesion

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