Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
BMJ Open. 2022 Dec 9;12(12):e066389. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066389.
To compare the mental health and life satisfaction of those employed in the gig work and contingent work with those in full-time or part-time work and the unemployed in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic. To explore the possible mechanisms of latent and manifest benefits of employment, such as financial precarity and loneliness.
Cross-sectional survey.
A representative sample of 17 722 employed and unemployed British adults, including 429 gig workers. People with disability, retirees and full-time students are not included in the sample.
Mental health (General Health Questionnaire-12 score) and life satisfaction (a direct question from UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS)) as outcomes. Self-reported loneliness (four widely used questions from UKHLS) and financial precarity (a direct question from UKHLS) as mediators.
Gig workers reported mental health and life satisfaction worse than those employed full time and part time, but better than the unemployed. Mediation analyses showed that gig workers' worse mental health and life satisfaction than other workers were explained by their higher levels of loneliness and financial precarity, while gig workers' better mental health and life satisfaction than the unemployed were explained by their less financial precarity.
Informal and freelance economy provided manifest benefits of employment to gig workers compared with unemployment but lacked latent benefits of employment. Public policies should provide social support to freelance and contingent workers to reduce their loneliness and improve their psychological well-being, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
比较英国 COVID-19 大流行期间零工工作和临时工工作者与全职或兼职工作者和失业者的心理健康和生活满意度。探讨就业的潜在和明显收益（如经济不稳定和孤独感）的可能机制。
横断面调查。
具有代表性的 17722 名英国在职和失业成年人样本，包括 429 名零工工作者。残疾人士、退休人士和全日制学生不包括在样本中。
心理健康（一般健康问卷-12 评分）和生活满意度（英国家庭纵向研究（UKHLS）的直接问题）为结局。自我报告的孤独感（英国家庭纵向研究中使用的四个广泛问题）和经济不稳定（英国家庭纵向研究中的直接问题）为中介变量。
零工工作者报告的心理健康和生活满意度不如全职和兼职工作者，但好于失业者。中介分析表明，零工工作者的心理健康和生活满意度不如其他工作者，这是由于他们的孤独感和经济不稳定程度较高所致，而零工工作者的心理健康和生活满意度好于失业者，则是由于他们的经济不稳定程度较低所致。
与失业相比，非正式和自由职业经济为零工工作者提供了明显的就业收益，但缺乏就业的潜在收益。公共政策应向自由职业者和临时工提供社会支持，以减轻他们的孤独感并改善他们的心理健康，特别是在 COVID-19 大流行期间。
