Mental Health of Apprentices during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Austria and the Effect of Gender, Migration Background, and Work Situation

Rachel Dale, Teresa O’Rourke, Elke Humer, Andrea Jesser, Paul L. Plener and Christoph Pieh
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Rachel Dale: Department for Psychotherapy and Biopsychosocial Health, Danube University Krems, 3500 Krems, Austria
Teresa O’Rourke: Department for Psychotherapy and Biopsychosocial Health, Danube University Krems, 3500 Krems, Austria
Elke Humer: Department for Psychotherapy and Biopsychosocial Health, Danube University Krems, 3500 Krems, Austria
Andrea Jesser: Department for Psychotherapy and Biopsychosocial Health, Danube University Krems, 3500 Krems, Austria
Paul L. Plener: Department of Child and Adolescence Psychiatry, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
Christoph Pieh: Department for Psychotherapy and Biopsychosocial Health, Danube University Krems, 3500 Krems, Austria

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 17, 1-11

Abstract: This study assessed the mental health of apprentices during the COVID-19 pandemic in Austria and the effect of gender, migration background, work situation, and work sector. An online survey via REDCap was performed with a sample of 1442 apprentices (female: 53.5%, male: 45.4%, diverse: 1.1%, migration background: 28.4%) from 29 March to 18 May 2021. Indicators of mental health were depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7), well-being (WHO-5), disordered eating (EAT-8), and insomnia (ISI-7). There was a high prevalence of clinically relevant depression (cut-offs ?11 for adolescents, ?10 for adults: 48.3%), anxiety (cut-offs ?11 for adolescents, ?10 for adults: 35.4%), insomnia (cut-off ?15: 27%), and disordered eating (cut-offs ?2 for men, ?3 for women: 50.6%). Linear models revealed that apprentices with female and diverse gender, migration background, and unemployed status showed the poorest scores on all mental health measures (all p -values < 0.05) except disordered eating. These findings emphasize the need for intersectional strategies to reduce and prevent adverse mental health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for apprentices.

Keywords: mental health; COVID-19; apprentices; gender; migration background; work situation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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