(Dis)placing trust: the long-term effects of job displacement on generalised trust over the adult lifecourse

What is the Meaning of Paid Employment for Well-Being? A Focus Group Study on Differences and Similarities Between Autistic Adults With and Without Employment

PURPOSE

The aim of the present study was to explore the meaning of work for the subjective well-being of autistic adults with and without paid (competitive) employment and to evaluate the differences and similarities between these groups.

METHODS

Eight focus groups were conducted, including a total of 64 autistic adults. Four groups entailed participants with current paid employment (including part-time) and four groups entailed participants without paid employment. All discussions were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim to enable inductive thematic content analysis. Data were analyzed using ATLAS.ti 9.

RESULTS

Generally, both groups viewed paid employment as very important for well-being, albeit for different reasons. Three themes were found: (1) Not having paid employment was associated with lacking societal recognition, and subsequent low self-esteem, which was a dominant theme in those without work; (2) Work can seriously damage (mental) health and well-being, found in both groups; and (3) Paid employment provides many benefits for well-being, with subthemes: 'purpose,' 'social contacts,' 'growth and use of talents,' 'structure and calmness,' and 'income and freedom', which was a dominant theme in those with paid employment.

CONCLUSIONS

Both groups found paid employment highly important for their well-being, albeit for different reasons. However, both also agreed that paid employment can be very harmful to (mental) health and well-being. Suitable, well-supported jobs are important for well-being, may help to buffer stress in other life areas, and may even prevent autistic burnout. More studies are needed on how healthy jobs can be created where autistic individuals get positive energy and experience high well-being. This will also help to reduce socio-economic inequality.

Doubly disadvantaged: Unemployment, young age, and electoral participation in the United Kingdom

Previous studies examine how unemployment affects socio-political behaviour, but this literature has scarcely focused on the role of the life-course. Integrating the frameworks of unemployment scarring and political socialisation, we posit that unemployment experiences, or scars, undermine electoral participation, and that this is exacerbated at younger ages. We test these hypotheses relying on the British Household Panel Survey and Understanding Society datasets (1991-2020), employing panel data analysis approaches as Propensity Score Matching, Individual Fixed Effects, and Individual Fixed Effects with Individual Slopes. Results suggest that unemployment experiences depress electoral participation in the UK, with effect sizes around -5% of a Standard Deviation in turnout. However, this effect varies powerfully by age: the impact of unemployment on electoral participation is stronger at younger ages (-21% SD at age 20), and weaker to not significant after age 35. This is robust across the three main approaches and several robustness checks. Further analyses show that the first unemployment spell matters the most for electoral participation, and that for individuals under 35, there is a scar effect lasting up to 5 years after the first unemployment spell. The life-course emerges as central to better understand the relationship between labour market hardships and socio-political behaviour.

Scar effects of unemployment on generalised social trust: The joint impact of individual and contextual unemployment across Europe

How does unemployment affect generalised social trust? A growing body of work has analysed the scar effects of unemployment on trust. However, this literature has not yet addressed the moderating role of contextual unemployment. In this article, we extend a theoretical framework positing that individual and contextual unemployment depress generalised social trust and formulate competing hypotheses on their interaction. We test these hypotheses relying on Rounds 4-9 (2008-2018) of the European Social Survey, for up to 29 countries and 227 regions. Results from three-level multilevel models indicate that individual and contextual unemployment are associated with lower trust, although at the macro-level this holds only for cross-sectional unemployment. At the macro-micro level, we find that lower cross-sectional unemployment rates powerfully exacerbate the individual association, while the latter becomes not significant at higher cross-sectional rates. These findings highlight that individual and contextual unemployment are central to illuminate social trust patterns.

Narrowing Racial Differences in Trust: How Discrimination Shapes Trust in a Racialized Society

In the United States, survey research and qualitative studies consistently find that people of color-and Blacks in particular-report substantially lower levels of trust than do whites. These racial differences in trust pervade a range of social contexts, from interpersonal relationships with friends, family, and neighbors to interactions with the health care and criminal justice systems. Scholars often attribute racial differences in trust to historical and contemporary forms of discrimination, yet few studies have assessed the relationship among race, discrimination, and trust in the context of the United States. Using the Chicago Community Adult Health Study, I examine how the experience of discrimination relates to generalized trust, trust in neighbors, and trust in community police. Findings reveal that personal experience with discrimination contributes modestly to racial differences in trust. In fact, the negative association between discrimination and generalized trust appears strongest for whites. These findings suggest that understanding distrust requires a richer conceptual framework that moves beyond personal experience with discrimination. I argue that the theory of systemic racism provides a framework for understanding distrust as a consequence of countervailing efforts to uphold and contest the racial hierarchy.

Too unwell to trust? The effect of mental health on social trust in Europe

Social trust is often thought to be adversely affected by mental health problems. However, rigorous causal evidence required to substantiate this thought is scarce. Here I examine the causal effect of individuals' mental health on social trust using data from the European Social Survey. Estimating the causal effect, however, is a formidable task since the relationship between mental health and social trust is endogenous due to reverse causality and unmeasured confounding. I circumvent these difficulties by using a recently developed econometric technique that does not rely on valid exclusion restriction for identification. I find strong evidence that mental ill health has a significant negative effect on social trust. Further, I provide suggestive evidence which shows that the adverse effect of mental ill health on social trust arises due to reductions in individuals' level of optimism and hope, and participation in social networks caused by mental ill health. Overall, the results suggest that for achieving a durable increase in social trust - which often is one of the fundamental objectives of policy makers - interventions to promote mental health of individuals could be extremely useful.

Experiences matter: A longitudinal study of individual-level sources of declining social trust in the United States

The US has experienced a substantial decline in social trust in recent decades. Surprisingly few studies analyze whether individual-level explanations can account for this decrease. We use three-wave panel data from the General Social Survey (2006-2014) to study the effects of four possible individual-level sources of changes in social trust: job loss, social ties, income, and confidence in political institutions. Findings from fixed-effects linear regression models suggest that all but social ties matter. We then use 1973-2018 GSS data to predict trust based on observed values for unemployment, confidence in institutions, and satisfaction with income, versus an alternative counterfactual scenario in which the values of those three predictors are held constant at their mean levels in the early 1970s. Predicted values from these two scenarios differ substantially, suggesting that decreasing confidence in institutions and increasing unemployment scarring may explain about half of the observed decline in US social trust.

Work Stress and General Trust: The Mediating Effect of Depression and the Moderating Effect of the OXTR Gene rs53576

BACKGROUND

Work stress has been proved to be linked to depression, and both can decrease general trust. Likewise, OXTR gene is currently the gene that is most closely associated with trust. However, few empirical studies have explored the significant role of gene-environment interactions on general trust. In this study, we explored the mediating role of depression in the relationship between work stress and general trust, and the moderating role of the OXTR rs 53576 in the mediation model.

METHODS

364 healthy Han Chinese faculties were recruited from one university in Beijing. Work stress, depression, and general trust were assessed using the House and Rizzo's Work Stress Scale, Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), and the General Trust Questionnaire, respectively. Blood samples were collected for OXTR rs53576 genotyping.

RESULTS

Depression mediated the relationship between work stress and general trust. In the mediation model, OXTR rs53576 could only moderated the direct path from work stress to general trust. For AA and GA individuals, depression completely mediated the relationship between work stress and general trust. For GG individuals, depression partly mediated the relationship between work stress and general trust.

LIMITATIONS

This study used a cross-sectional design, only considered Han Chinese faculties, and the role of other genes should be explored.

CONCLUSIONS

Depression has a mediating effect between work stress and general trust. The general trust levels of GG genotype individuals are more prone to be affected by work stress than AA and GA individuals.

Economic conditions and native-immigrant asymmetries in generalized social trust

Previous research suggests that individual-level factors such as socio-economic disadvantage and discrimination account for lower levels of generalized social trust of immigrants when compared to natives. This study examines how individual and contextual economic conditions impact such trust gaps. We argue that-beyond objective economic circumstances-evaluations of economic opportunities matter for immigrants' integration, and for their social trust. Using data from the European Social Survey 2012, 2016, merged with regional economic conditions, results from two-way fixed effects multilevel models show that gaps in social trust are wider in regions where the state of the economy is predominantly evaluated as being prosperous. Additional tests show that, in those regions, immigrants report higher levels of discrimination and lower levels of satisfaction with social life. This study adds the important finding to the literature on social inequality and immigrant integration that favorable economic conditions may, paradoxically, increase native-immigrant trust asymmetries.

Oxytocin receptor gene polymorphisms moderate the relationship between job stress and general trust in Chinese Han university teachers

BACKGROUND

Chronic exposure to stressful work environments can influence general trust. High job stress is associated with low trust in others. Both environmental and genetic factors contribute to general trust; however, few empirical studies have explored the important role of gene-environment interactions on general trust. In this study, the moderating roles of the polymorphisms OXTR rs53576 and OXTR rs2268490 in the relationship between job stress and general trust were evaluated.

METHODS

362 healthy Chinese Han university teachers (196 males, 165 females, and 1 undisclosed) were included (M_age = 39.80, SD = 9.16). Standardized questionnaires about demographic characteristics, job stress, and general trust scale were collected. Blood samples were collected for OXTR rs53576 and rs2268490 genotyping.

RESULTS

Job stress scores showed a significant negative main effect on general trust (p < 0.001), while OXTR rs53576 and rs2268490 did not (p > 0.05). The effect of the interaction between job stress and OXTR rs53576 or rs2268490 on general trust was significant, even after controlling for gender and age. High job stress was associated with low general trust in OXTR rs53576 homozygous individuals (GG/AA) or OXTR rs2268490 CT individuals, demonstrating that the GA genotype in OXTR rs53576 and CC/TT genotype in OXTR rs2268490 are protective genotype of general trust.

LIMITATIONS

This study used a cross-sectional design, only considered Chinese Han university teachers, and only examined two polymorphisms in OXTR.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings provide evidence that gene-environment interactions influence general trust and identify a new locus (rs2268490) underlying this phenotype.

The Development of Generalized Trust among Young People in England

This paper explores how generalized trust develops over the life course among young people in England and whether trust is influenced more by family background factors or by conditions in late adolescence and early adulthood. If the latter are important, there may be reason for concern about falling levels of trust as material conditions, particularly regarding housing, have deteriorated for the present generation of young people. The first set of influences are highlighted by a perspective arguing that trust is primarily shaped by conditions in early childhood, while the latter are suggested by the so-called social learning perspective, which claims that people continuously adjust their social trust through interactions with people in different contexts. Analyzing data of the Citizenship Education Longitudinal Survey, the study finds that trust remains quite volatile until the early twenties. It declines between ages 16 and 23 and groups differing in educational attainment, civic participation and housing situation start to drift apart in their levels of trust between these ages. Educational attainment, civic participation and housing, as conditions pertaining to late adolescence and early adulthood, also turn out to have a significant impact on trust at age 23 controlling for trust at age 16. However, while the first two conditions are influenced by trust at age 16, housing (tenure) is not, indicating it is a more exogenous factor. Family background factors are not influential. Not only do these findings support the social learning perspective, they also suggest that poor living conditions depress trust among a significant minority of young people and exacerbate disparities of trust.

Self-rated health, generalized trust, and the Affordable Care Act: A US panel study, 2006-2014

Previous research shows that generalized trust, the belief that most people can be trusted, is conducive to people's health. However, only recently have longitudinal studies suggested an additional reciprocal pathway from health back to trust. Drawing on a diverse body of literature that shows how egalitarian social policy contributes to the promotion of generalized trust, we hypothesize that this other 'reverse' pathway could be sensitive to health insurance context. Drawing on nationally representative US panel data from the General Social Survey, we examine whether the Affordable Care Act of 2010 could have had influence on the deteriorating impact of worsening self-rated health (SRH) on generalized trust. Firstly, using two-wave panel data (2008-2010, N = 1403) and employing random effects regression models, we show that a lack of health insurance coverage negatively determines generalized trust in the United States. However, this association is attenuated when additionally controlling for (perceived) income inequality. Secondly, utilizing data from two separate three-wave panel studies from the US General Social Survey (2006-10; N = 1652; 2010-2014; N = 1187), we employ fixed-effects linear regression analyses to control for unobserved heterogeneity from time-invariant factors. We demonstrate that worsening SRH was a stronger predictor for a decrease in generalized trust prior (2006-2010) to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Further, the negative effect of fair/poor SRH seen in the 2006-2010 data becomes attenuated in the 2010-2014 panel data. We thus find evidence for a substantial weakening of the previously established negative impact of decreasing SRH on generalized trust, coinciding with the most significant US healthcare reforms in decades. Social policy and healthcare policy implications are discussed.