Subjective Perception of Work and the Home Care Workers’ Depression

Yu Zhang, Hanjin Zhang and Yihui Su ()
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Yu Zhang: School of Marxism, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, No. 334 Jungong Road, Shanghai 200093, China
Hanjin Zhang: Department of Sociology, College of Humanities, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, No. 777 Guoding Road, Shanghai 200433, China
Yihui Su: Department of Sociology, College of Humanities, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, No. 777 Guoding Road, Shanghai 200433, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 24, 1-12

Abstract: The care crisis has become a global trend, and the demand for child and elderly care is increasing worldwide. The increasing number of home care workers plays a significant role in meeting this demand in developing countries. The mental health of these workers is associated with the quality of care they provide, which has rarely been studied. This paper explored the factors that affect home care workers’ depression, including their socio-demographic characteristics, working environment, relationship with clients, social support networks, economic burden, and subjective perceptions of discrimination and work. It utilized data from the Shanghai Domestic-work Professionalization Survey (SDPS), which was conducted among four types of in-home caregivers ( n = 1000) in Shanghai over a period ranging from May to September 2021. The results show that the variables of marriage, education, self-reported health, relationship with client, economic burden, and subjective perceptions of discrimination and care work are significantly associated with home care workers’ level of depression. However, the variables of gender, age, household registration, and work environmental factors have no significant effect on their level of depression, which differs from the findings of previous studies on care workers in other institutions.

Keywords: home worker; depression; subjective perception of work (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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