Mental health and hostility as predictors of temporary employment: Evidence from two prospective studies

Marianna Virtanen, Mika Kivimäki, Marko Elovainio, Jussi Vahtera, Katja Kokko and Lea Pulkkinen

Social Science & Medicine, 2005, vol. 61, issue 10, 2084-2095

Abstract: We used two studies to examine whether mental health and hostility predicted temporary employment. Study 1 involved a cohort of 970 Finnish hospital employees (102 men, 868 women) who had temporary job contracts at baseline. After adjustment for demographics, organisational tenure and part-time work status, doctor-diagnosed psychiatric disorder predicted continuing in temporary employment instead of receiving a permanent job by the end of the 2-year follow-up. A higher level of hostility was also associated with temporary employment, but only among employees in low socioeconomic positions. In Study 2, anxiety and aggressive behaviour were measured in a cohort of 226 Finnish school children (116 boys, 110 girls) at 8 years of age. Anxiety in childhood predicted temporary employment at age 42. Aggressive behaviour in childhood was related to ongoing temporary employment status in adulthood among individuals in low socioeconomic positions. Our findings suggest that selection by individual characteristics operates between the temporary and permanent workforces. Mental health problems, a part of which are already seen in childhood, seem to restrict individuals' possibilities to gain secure labour market positions. Hostility and aggressiveness seem to be related to labour market prospects only among individuals in low socioeconomic positions.

Keywords: Employment; Depression; Hostility; Mental; health; Health-related; selection; Inequality; Finland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(05)00186-3
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:socmed:v:61:y:2005:i:10:p:2084-2095

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().