Hostname: page-component-546b4f848f-zwmfq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2023-06-04T12:42:04.742Z Has data issue: false Feature Flags: { "useRatesEcommerce": true } hasContentIssue false
  • English

Common mental disorders, unemployment and psychosocial job quality: is a poor job better than no job at all?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2012

P. Butterworth ,
L. S. Leach ,
S. McManus  and
S. A. Stansfeld
P. Butterworth*
Affiliation:
Psychiatric Epidemiology and Social Issues Unit, Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
L. S. Leach
Affiliation:
Psychiatric Epidemiology and Social Issues Unit, Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
S. McManus
Affiliation:
National Centre for Social Research, London, UK
S. A. Stansfeld
Affiliation:
Centre for Psychiatry, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, UK
*
*Address for correspondence: P. Butterworth, Associate Professor, Psychiatric Epidemiology and Social Issues Unit, Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing, Building 63 Eggleston Road, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia. (Email: Peter.Butterworth@anu.edu.au)
Get access Rights & Permissions[Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Employment is associated with health benefits over unemployment, but the psychosocial characteristics of work also influence health. There has, however, been little research contrasting the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among people who are unemployed with those in jobs of differing psychosocial quality.

Method

Analysis of data from the English Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) considered the prevalence of common mental disorders (CMDs) among 2603 respondents aged between 21 and 54 years who were either (i) employed or (ii) unemployed and looking for work at the time of interview in 2007. Quality of work was assessed by the number of adverse psychosocial job conditions reported (low control, high demands, insecurity and low job esteem).

Results

The prevalence of CMDs was similar for those respondents who were unemployed and those in the poorest quality jobs. This pattern remained after controlling for relevant demographic and socio-economic covariates.

Conclusions

Although employment is thought to promote mental health and well-being, work of poor psychosocial quality is not associated with any better mental health than unemployment. Policy efforts to improve community mental health should consider psychosocial job quality in conjunction with efforts to increase employment rates.

Keywords

Employmentmental healthpsychosocialunemployment
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 43 , Issue 8 , August 2013 , pp. 1763 - 1772
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bambra, C (2011). Work, worklessness and the political economy of health inequalities. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 65, 746–750.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bambra, C, Eikemo, TA (2009). Welfare state regimes, unemployment and health: a comparative study of the relationship between unemployment and self-reported health in 23 European countries. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 63, 92–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bartley, M, Blane, D, Montgomery, S (1997). Health and the life course: why safety nets matter. British Medical Journal 314, 1194–1196.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Broom, DH, D'Souza, RM, Strazdins, L, Butterworth, P, Parslow, R, Rodgers, B (2006). The lesser evil: bad jobs or unemployment? A survey of mid-aged Australians. Social Science and Medicine 63, 575–586.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Butterworth, P, Gill, SC, Rodgers, B, Anstey, KJ, Villamil, E, Melzer, D (2006). Retirement and mental health: analysis of the Austalian National Survey of Mental Health and Well-being. Social Science and Medicine 62, 1179–1191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butterworth, P, Leach, LS, Strazdins, L, Olesen, SC, Rodgers, B, Broom, D (2011). The psychosocial quality of work determines whether employment has benefits for mental health: results from a longitudinal national household panel survey. Occupational and Environmental Medicine 68, 806–812.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, C, Pike, C, McManus, S, Harris, J, Bebbington, P, Brugha, T, Jenkins, R, Meltzer, H, Weich, S, Stansfeld, S (2012). The contribution of work and non-work stressors to common mental disorders in the 2007 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey. Psychological Medicine 42, 829–842.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Department of Health (2011). No health without mental health: a cross-Government Mental Health Outcomes Strategy for people of all ages. HM Government: London.Google Scholar
Dooley, D, Catalano, R, Wilson, G (1994). Depression and unemployment: panel findings from the Epidemiologic Catchment Area study. American Journal of Public Health 22, 745–765.Google ScholarPubMed
Dragano, N, Siegrist, J, Wahrendorf, M (2011). Welfare regimes, labour policies and unhealthy psychosocial working conditions: a comparative study with 9917 older employees from 12 European countries. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 65, 793–799.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eikemo, TA, Bambra, C (2008). The welfare state: a glossary for public health. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 62, 3–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ford, E, Stansfeld, S, McManus, S, Harris, J, Clark, C (2010). Common mental disorder, unemployment and welfare benefits in England. Journal of Public Health 124, 675–681.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grzywacz, JG, Dooley, D (2003). ‘Good jobs’ to ‘bad jobs’: replicated evidence of an employment continuum from two large surveys. Social Science and Medicine 56, 1749–1760.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
International Labour Office (2010). World Social Security Report 2010/11: Providing Coverage in Times of Crisis and Beyond. International Labour Organization: Geneva.Google Scholar
Jenkins, R, Bhugra, D, Bebbington, P, Brugha, T, Farrell, M, Coid, J, Fryers, T, Weich, S, Singleton, N, Meltzer, H (2008). Debt, income and mental disorer in the general population. Psychological Medicine 38, 1485–1492.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, R, Meltzer, H, Bebbington, P, Brugha, T, Farrell, M, McManus, S, Singletone, N (2009). The British Mental Health Survey Programme: achievements and latest findings. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 44, 899–904.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Karasek, RA (1979). Job demands, job decision latitude, and mental strain: implications for job redesign. Administrative Science Quarterly 24, 285–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leach, LS, Butterworth, P (2012). The effect of early onset common mental disorders on educational attainment in Australia. Psychiatry Research. Published online: 14 04 2012. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2012.03.040.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leach, LS, Butterworth, P, Rodgers, B, Strazdins, L (2010 a). Deriving an evidence-based measure of job quality from the HILDA Survey. Australian Social Policy Journal 9, 67–86.Google Scholar
Leach, LS, Butterworth, P, Strazdins, L, Rodgers, B, Broom, D, Olesen, SC (2010 b). The limitations of employment as a tool for social inclusion. BMC Public Health 10, 621.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, G, Peosi, AJ, Araya, R, Dunn, G (1992). Measuring psychiatric disorder in the community: a standardized assessment for use by lay interviewers. Psychological Medicine 22, 465–486.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lorant, V, Deliege, D, Eaton, W, Robert, A, Phillippot, P, Ansseau, M (2003). Socioeconomic inequalities in depression: a meta-analysis. American Journal of Epidemiology 157, 98–112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McManus, S, Meltzer, H, Brugha, T, Bebbington, P, Jenkins, R (eds) (2009). Adult Psychiatric Morbidity in England 2007: Results of a Household Survey. The NHS Information Centre: London.Google Scholar
Meltzer, H, Bebbington, P, Brugha, T, Jenkins, R, McManus, S, Dennis, MS (2011). Personal debt and suicidal ideation. Psychological Medicine 41, 771–778.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Melzer, D, Buxton, J, Villamil, E (2004). Decline in common mental disorder prevalence in men during the sixth decade of life: evidence from the National Psychiatric Morbidity Survey. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 39, 33–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morgan, C, Burns, T, Fitzpatrick, R, Pinfold, V, Priebe, S (2007). Social exclusion and mental health: conceptual and methodological review. British Journal of Psychiatry 191, 477–483.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nelson, HE, Willison, J (1991). National Adult Reading Test (NART). NFER-Nelson: Windsor.Google Scholar
OECD (2005). OECD Employment Outlook 2005. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD): Paris.Google Scholar
OECD (2008). Handbook on Constructing Composite Indicators. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD): Paris.Google Scholar
Royston, P (2004). Multiple imputation of missing values. Stata Journal 4, 227–241.Google Scholar
Saunders, JB, Aasland, OG, Babor, TF, Dela Fuente, JR, Grant, M (1993). Development of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT): WHO collaborative project on early detection of persons with harmful alcohol consumption, part II. Addiction 88, 791–804.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegrist, J (1996). Adverse health effect of high effort-low reward conditions at work. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 1, 27–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegrist, J, Wege, N, Puhlhofer, F, Wahrendorf, M (2009). A short generic measure of work stress in the era of globalization: effort-reward imbalance. International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health 82, 1005–1013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stansfeld, S, Candy, B (2006). Psychosocial work environment and mental health – a meta-analytic review. Scandinvian Journal of Work, Environment and Health 32, 443–462.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stansfeld, S, Pike, C, McManus, S, Harris, J, Bebbington, P, Brugha, T, Hassiotis, A, Jenkins, R, Meltzer, H, Moran, P, Clark, C (2012). Occupations, work characteristics and common mental disorder. Psychological Medicine. Published online: 24 08 2012. doi:10.1017/S0033291712001821.Google ScholarPubMed
Stansfeld, SA, Fuhrer, R, Shipley, MJ, Marmot, MG (2002). Psychological distress as a risk factor for coronary heart disease in the Whitehall II Study. International Journal of Epidemiology 31, 248–255.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strazdins, L, D'Souza, RM, Lim, LL, Broom, DH, Rodgers, B (2004). Job strain, job insecurity, and health: rethinking the relationship. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 9, 296–305.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sutherland, H, Sefton, T, Piachaud, D (2003). Poverty in Britain: The Impact of Government Policy Since 1997. Joseph Rowntree Foundation: York.Google Scholar
Thomas, C, Benzeval, M, Stansfeld, S (2005). Employment transitions and mental health: an analysis from the British household panel survey. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 59, 243–249.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed