On the Biopsychosocial Costs of Alienated Labor

Melvin Seeman, Sharon Stein Merkin, Arun Karlamangla, Brandon Koretz, Joseph G Grzywacz, Margie Lachman and Teresa Seeman
Additional contact information
Melvin Seeman: University of California, USA
Sharon Stein Merkin: University of California, USA
Arun Karlamangla: University of California, USA
Brandon Koretz: University of California, USA
Joseph G Grzywacz: Florida State University, USA
Margie Lachman: Brandeis University, USA
Teresa Seeman: University of California, USA

Work, Employment & Society, 2021, vol. 35, issue 5, 891-913

Abstract: Data from the national, longitudinal Mid-Life in the US (MIDUS) study were used to examine work alienation and its relationship to biological health as well as psychological and social functioning. The alienation measure focuses on the autonomy and creativity the work provides. We hypothesized that alienated work would have negative associations with each of the three domains: in biology, higher ‘allostatic load’ (biological dysregulation); in psychology, poorer cognitive performance; and socially, negative impacts on family life. The outcomes are generally as predicted, though there are notable differences for men and women.

Keywords: alienation; allostatic load; biopsychosocial health; self-estrangement; work (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017020952662 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:35:y:2021:i:5:p:891-913

DOI: 10.1177/0950017020952662

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Work, Employment & Society from British Sociological Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().