Department of Applied Health Sciences, Brock University, 1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way, St. Catharines, ON, L2S 4A1, Canada.
Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2022 Jan;57(1):25-36. doi: 10.1007/s00127-021-02187-6. Epub 2021 Nov 12.
While there is strong evidence that job insecurity leads to mental distress, little is known about how gender and parental responsibilities may exacerbate this relationship. Examining their contribution as potential effect modifiers may provide insights into gender inequalities in mental health and inform gender-sensitive labour policies to ameliorate the negative effects of job insecurity. Our study addresses this gap by examining the longitudinal association between job insecurity and mental health across different configurations of gender and parental responsibilities.
Our sample includes 34,772 employed participants over the period of 2010-2018. A gender-stratified fixed-effect regression was used to model the within-person change over time in mental health associated with loss of job security, and effect modification by parent-partner status (e.g. childfree men, partnered father, etc.).
Loss of job security was associated with a moderate decrease in mental health functioning for partnered fathers, partnered mothers, and childfree men and women ranging between a reduction in MCS-12 by 1.00 to 2.27 points (p < 0.05). Lone fathers who lose their job security experienced a higher decrease in mental health functioning at - 7.69 (95% CI - 12.69 to - 2.70), while lone mothers did not experience any change.
The effects of job insecurity on mental health is consistent across gender and parent-partner status with the exception of lone fathers and lone mothers. Future studies should investigate the effects of policies that may reduce mental distress in the face of the threat of job loss such as reducing wait time for payment of unemployment benefits.
虽然有强有力的证据表明工作不安全感会导致精神困扰，但人们对性别和父母责任如何加剧这种关系知之甚少。研究它们作为潜在效应修饰剂的作用可能有助于了解心理健康方面的性别不平等，并为性别敏感的劳动力政策提供信息，以减轻工作不安全感的负面影响。我们的研究通过检查性别和父母责任不同配置下工作不安全感与心理健康之间的纵向关联来解决这一差距。
我们的样本包括 2010 年至 2018 年期间的 34772 名就业参与者。使用性别分层固定效应回归来模拟与失去工作保障相关的心理健康随时间的个体内变化，并通过父母伴侣身份（例如无子女的男性、有伴侣的父亲等）进行效应修饰。
失去工作保障与有伴侣的父亲、有伴侣的母亲以及无子女的男性和女性的心理健康功能中度下降相关，MCS-12 减少 1.00 至 2.27 分（p < 0.05）。失去工作保障的单身父亲经历了心理健康功能的更大下降，为 -7.69（95%CI -12.69 至 -2.70），而单身母亲则没有任何变化。
工作不安全感对心理健康的影响在性别和父母伴侣身份方面是一致的，但单身父亲和单身母亲除外。未来的研究应该调查可能减少面对失业威胁时精神困扰的政策的影响，例如减少失业救济金支付的等待时间。
