Immigrants' Employment Stability Over the Great Recession and Its Aftermath

We examine immigrant men's employment stability during the Great Recession and its aftermath using a longitudinal approach that draws on data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), a nationally representative panel survey of U.S. residents. Discrete-time event-history models are used to estimate male immigrants' relative risk of experiencing an involuntary job loss or underemployment, defined as working less than full-time involuntarily. The analysis also investigates differences in job stability by immigrant documentation status. Undocumented immigrants are identified using a logical allocation method augmented with external information about whether the respondent was successfully matched with administrative data. We find that immigrants are at significantly higher risk of involuntary job loss, and especially of underemployment relative to native-born workers. Undocumented immigrants face a greater risk of adverse job transitions, particularly underemployment in the first part of the recession. When demographic and job characteristics are taken into account, immigrant-native and documented-undocumented differences attenuate but remain in many instances. A comparison of our findings with those from an earlier nonrecessionary period from 2004 to 2006 suggests that immigrants' higher risk of employment instability may be attributed to the recession.

Predictors of College Enrollment across the Life Course: Heterogeneity by Age and Gender

Undergraduate college-going is now undertaken well into adulthood, but knowledge about what leads individuals to enroll derives nearly entirely from the study of the “traditionally-aged”. I examine whether and how predictors of enrollment vary as individuals progress through the life-course using nationally representative data from the United States, following a cohort from ages 18–45. Measures of social background and academic preparation are only weakly predictive beyond age 24, while the effects of gender are largest after age 35. Marriage appears to be a barrier to enrollment among males and females, but only until age 25. Involuntary job loss spurs college-going most strongly among those aged 35 or older, and particularly among women. Among those over age 25, marital dissolution predicts enrollment positively among females but negatively among males.

Interpersonal Trauma in the Lives of Nurses and Perceptions of Nursing Work

The purpose of this study was to explore associations between trauma experiences among nurses and nursing perceptions of risk for involuntary job loss and standing in society. This observational study used 2001 data from the Nurses’ Health Study II ( N = 53,323 female nurses). The outcome variables were nurses’ perceptions of their risk for involuntary job loss and their social standing in the United States and within their own community. The exposure variables were childhood and adulthood interpersonal trauma. Nurses reported high levels of emotional (60% childhood; 44% adulthood), physical (45% childhood, 23% adulthood), and sexual trauma (15% childhood, 11% adulthood). Emotional trauma was associated with perception of higher risk for involuntary job loss, but also higher perception of nurse societal standing. Nurses experience high rates of interpersonal trauma, which may influence how they perceive their profession.

Stress Is a Risk Factor for Shingles Among Older Adults

Stress is a risk factor for shingles. Empirical evidence of how stress affects getting shingles is lacking for the older population. This paper examines how chronic stress and stressful events are associated with incident shingles in a nationally representative sample of the population over age 50, the Health and Retirement Study. Using data for 2010-2016, we tracked 12,628 persons aged 50 and older with no history of shingles at 2010 until the first shingles occurrence and linked shingles to chronic stress appraisal and stressful events in the prior period. Chronic stress appraisal was measured in eight life domains: health, spousal/children, finance, work, residence, relationship, alcohol/drug, and caregiving. Adverse life events including spousal loss, involuntary job loss, residential move, negative wealth shock, and spousal onset of disability were included in an index of stressful events. 3.3% of sample members developed new shingles cases. Regression results suggest that having a higher burden of stressful events significantly increased the risk for shingles (OR:1.13, 95% CI=1.05, 1.22), whereas ongoing chronic appraisal was not associated with shingles onset (OR:0.99, 95% CI=0.96, 1.03). Our findings highlight the importance of preventive efforts on stress management in reducing risks for zoster.

The 12-month course of ICD-11 adjustment disorder in the context of involuntary job loss

Background After its redefinition in ICD-11, adjustment disorder (AjD) comprises two core symptom clusters of preoccupations and failure to adapt to the stressor. Only a few studies investigate the course of AjD over time and the definition of six months until the remission of the disorder is based on little to no empirical evidence. The aim of the present study was to investigate the course of AjD symptoms and symptom clusters over time and to longitudinally evaluate predictors of AjD symptom severity. Method A selective sample of the Zurich Adjustment Disorder Study, N = 105 individuals who experienced involuntary job loss and reported either high or low symptom severity at first assessment (t1), were assessed M = 3.4 (SD = 2.1) months after the last day at work, and followed up six (t2) and twelve months (t3) later. They completed a fully structured diagnostic interview for AjD and self-report questionnaires. Results The prevalence of AjD was 21.9% at t1, 6.7% at t2, and dropped to 2.9% at t3. All individual symptoms and symptom clusters showed declines in prevalence rates across the three assessments. A hierarchical regression analysis of symptoms at t3 revealed that more symptoms at the first assessment (β = 0.32, p = .002) and the number of new life events between the first assessment and t3 (β = 0.29, p = .004) significantly predicted the number of AjD symptoms at t3. Conclusion Although prevalence rates of AjD declined over time, a significant proportion of individuals still experienced AjD symptoms after six months. Future research should focus on the specific mechanisms underlying the course of AjD.