Unemployment, Temporary Work, and Subjective Well-Being: The Gendered Effect of Spousal Labor Market Insecurity

2018 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 536-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hande Inanc

The negative impact of unemployment on individuals and its spillover to spouses is widely documented. However, we have a gap in our knowledge when it comes to the similar consequences of temporary employment. This is problematic, because although temporary jobs are often considered better alternatives to unemployment for endowing individuals with income and opportunities to connect to employers, they are also associated with stressors such as high levels of job insecurity and poor quality work, the effects of which might spill over to spouses. Using matched data from the British Household Panel Study, I show that temporary work is at least as detrimental as unemployment for spouses’ subjective well-being, although there are differences. When experienced by husbands, temporary work, like unemployment, has a negative effect on wives’ psychological well-being and life satisfaction. Yet, as opposed to unemployment, wives’ temporary employment also spills over and negatively affects husbands’ psychological well-being. Furthermore, coupled individuals’ well-being is most affected when men are either unemployed or temporarily employed and their wives have permanent jobs, suggesting that the effect is related to gender deviation. The effects are robust after controlling for fixed individual characteristics that can influence both employment status and well-being outcomes.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Živilė Stankevičiūtė ◽  
M. Isabel Sanchez-Hernandez ◽  
Eglė Staniškienė

Over the past decade, job insecurity referring to the employees’ perceived threat to the continuity and stability of employment as it is currently experienced has become a hot topic. A general assumption, supported by the findings, is that job insecurity causes far-reaching negative consequences for the employee health and well-being, attitudes toward organization and the job, and behaviors at work. However, the focus on behavioral outcomes, especially on employee performance at work, is still scant. Moreover, the literature remains fragmented concerning the impact of job insecurity on employee trust in the organization and how the trust influences employee subjective well-being (SWB), which in turn affects employee performance. Consequently, the link between job insecurity and SWB needs more investigation. Trying to narrow the gap, the paper aims at revealing the linkage between job insecurity, trust in the organization, SWB, and task performance. Quantitative data were collected in Lithuania. As predicted, the results revealed that job insecurity had a negative impact on trust in the organization and employee SWB. In case of linkage between job insecurity and task performance, the hypothesis was rejected. In general, these findings affirmed that job insecurity was a hindrance stressor, which needed to be considered when managing human resources in the current volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity context.


2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Dawson ◽  
Michail Veliziotis ◽  
Benjamin Hopkins

This article is concerned with whether employees on temporary contracts in Britain report lower well-being than those on permanent contracts, and whether this relationship is mediated by differences in dimensions of job satisfaction. Previous research has identified a well-being gap between permanent and temporary employees but has not addressed what individual and contract specific characteristics contribute to this observed difference. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey, the article finds that a large proportion of the difference in self-reported well-being between permanent and temporary employees appears to be explained by differences in satisfaction with job security. Other dimensions of job satisfaction are found to be less important. In fact, after controlling for differences in satisfaction with security, the results suggest that temporary employees report higher psychological well-being and life satisfaction. This indicates that an employment contract characterized by a definite duration lowers individual well-being principally through heightened job insecurity.


Author(s):  
Birgit Thomson ◽  
Lena Hünefeld

Organisations use non-standard employment as a means of flexibility and reduction of fixed costs. An increasingly growing group of employees are self-employed, have work contracts such as part-time and temporary contracts or are employed by a temporary agency, a development catalysed by the COVID pandemic. Whereas there is some evidence that temporary work might affect health via job insecurity (JI )there are hardly any studies focussing on the effects and mechanisms of temporary agency work (TAW). This study sheds light on TAW’s potential health impact and the role of JI in this respect using a mediation analysis. Based on the BIBB/BAuA-Employment Survey 2018 (N = 20.021, representative of the German working population), we analysed the direct effect of TAW on cognitive and psychosomatic aspects of well-being. In particular, we considered JI as mediator for this association. In line with the potentially detrimental effects of temporary employment on well-being, we found that TAW was related to unfavourable outcomes in terms of job satisfaction, general health status and musculoskeletal complaints. JI partially mediated all three underlying associations. Organisations need to be flexible and adaptable. However, by using temporary agency employment as a means to achieve this flexibility, managers and leaders should be aware that it is related to unfavourable well-being and hence hidden costs. In using this type of employment, both the temporary work agency and the user company should consider these health risks by providing health care, options for increasing the temporary agency workers (TA), workers employability, and equal treatment between permanent and TA workers at the actual workplace.


2021 ◽  
pp. 135910532199080
Author(s):  
Y. H. Luo ◽  
W. H. C. Li ◽  
A. T. Cheung ◽  
L. L. K. Ho ◽  
W. Xia ◽  
...  

A child suffering from cancer can be considerably stressful for parents, exerting a negative impact on their psychological well-being and quality of life. This study explored the relationships between resilience and quality of life in parents of children with cancer. We recruited 146 parents of children with cancer in two tertiary hospitals in mainland China. The results revealed that greater parental resilience was associated with better quality of life. It is essential to develop interventions that can enhance resilience for parents of children with cancer, thereby improving their quality of life. ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT03631485


Mindfulness ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julianna M. Lynch ◽  
Allison S. Troy

Abstract Objectives The current study investigated the hypothesis that the relationship between flow states and well-being is mediated by nondual experiences. Past empirical and theoretical work suggests flow states share similarities with nondual experiences. The current study expanded upon previous work by examining the relationships between flow, nondual experiences, emotion, and well-being. Methods Students enrolled in various artistic classes (N = 104) were surveyed once a week for four weeks. Participants reported on their experiences of flow, nonduality, emotion, and psychological and subjective well-being. Results Higher scores on measures of both flow (b = 7.03, SE = 0.82, p < .001) and nondual experiences (b = 0.17, SE = 0.02, p < .001) predicted increased positive emotion immediately after class. Nondual experiences partially mediated this relationship, such that when accounting for nondual experiences, the relationship between flow and positive emotion was significantly decreased (b = 4.30, SE = 0.45, p < .001). Longitudinally, nondual experience also mediated the relationship between flow and satisfaction with life (Sobel t = 1.94, SE = 1.06, p = .05). However, while flow predicted increased psychological well-being (b = 0.32, SE = 0.14, p = .02) after the four weeks, nondual experience did not (b = −0.003, SE = 0.002, p = .13). Conclusions These findings suggest that flow states may facilitate some features of nonduality and share similarities with meditative states. Additionally, the link between flow and well-being may be explained by its similarities to meditative states, and that creative activities could be useful in fostering well-being.


1997 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keiko Takahashi ◽  
Junko Tamura ◽  
Makiko Tokoro

On the premise that social relationships among elderly adults differ in terms of the most significant, dominant figure, this study aimed to examine: (1) whether there were qualitative differences in supportive functions between family-dominant and friend-dominant affective relationships, and (2) whether “lone wolves”, who were deficient in human resources, had difficulties in maintaining their well-being. A total of 148 Japanese, over the age of 65, both living in communities and in institutions were individually interviewed about their social relationships using a self-report type method, the Picture Affective Relationships test, and their well-being was assessed using Depression, Self-esteem, Life satisfaction, and Subjective health scales. Results showed that there were no differences in psychological well-being between family-dominant and friend-dominant participants, but those who lacked affective figures had lower scores in subjective well-being than did their family-dominant and friend-dominant counterparts. The generalisation of these findings to other cultures is discussed.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacinth Jia Xin Tan ◽  
Michael W. Kraus ◽  
Emily Impett ◽  
Dacher Keltner

Close relationships can be a source of positive subjective well-being for lower-class individuals, but stresses of lower-class environments tend to negatively impact those relationships. The present research demonstrates that a partner’s commitment in close relationships buffers against the negative impact of lower-class environments on relationships, mitigating social class differences in subjective well-being. In two samples of close relationship dyads, we found that when partners reported low commitment to the relationship, relatively lower-class individuals experienced poorer well-being than their upper-class counterparts, assessed as life satisfaction among romantic couples (Study 1) and negative affect linked to depression among ethnically diverse close friendships (Study 2). Conversely, when partners reported high commitment to the relationship, deficits in the well-being of lower-class relative to upper-class individuals were attenuated. Implications of these findings for upending the class divide in subjective well-being are discussed.


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