Chatterji Pinka, Alegría Margarita, Lu Mingshan, Takeuchi David
National Bureau of Economic Research, USA.
Health Econ. 2007 Oct;16(10):1069-90. doi: 10.1002/hec.1210.
This paper investigates to what extent psychiatric disorders and mental distress affect labor market outcomes in two rapidly growing populations that have not been studied to date-ethnic minorities of Latino and Asian descent, most of whom are immigrants. Using data from the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS), we examine the labor market effects of meeting diagnostic criteria for any psychiatric disorder in the past 12 months as well as the effects of psychiatric distress in the past year. The labor market outcomes analyzed are current employment status, the number of weeks worked in the past year among those who are employed, and having at least one work absence in the past month among those who are employed. Among Latinos, psychiatric disorders and mental distress are associated with detrimental effects on employment and absenteeism, similar to effects found in previous analyses of mostly white, American born populations. Among Asians, we find more mixed evidence that psychiatric disorders and mental distress detract from labor market outcomes. Our findings suggest that reducing disparities and expanding access to effective treatment may have significant labor market benefits-not just for majority populations, as has been demonstrated, but also for Asians and Latinos.
本文调查了精神疾病和精神困扰在多大程度上影响了两个快速增长的群体的劳动力市场结果，这两个群体迄今尚未得到研究，即拉丁裔和亚裔血统的少数族裔，他们中的大多数是移民。利用来自全国拉丁裔和亚裔美国人研究（NLAAS）的数据，我们研究了在过去12个月内符合任何精神疾病诊断标准的劳动力市场影响，以及过去一年精神困扰的影响。所分析的劳动力市场结果包括当前就业状况、过去一年中就业者的工作周数，以及过去一个月中就业者至少有一次工作缺勤情况。在拉丁裔中，精神疾病和精神困扰与就业和旷工的不利影响相关，这与之前对主要是美国出生的白人人群的分析结果相似。在亚裔中，我们发现更多复杂的证据表明，精神疾病和精神困扰会损害劳动力市场结果。我们的研究结果表明，减少差距并扩大获得有效治疗的机会可能会给劳动力市场带来显著好处——不仅如已证明的那样对多数群体有益，对亚裔和拉丁裔也有益。
