Participation in civil society organizations and ethnic minorities' interethnic friendships in Britain

Gig work and mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic: A gendered examination of comparisons with regular employment and unemployment

The rise of the platform economy during the Covid-19 pandemic has stimulated extensive discussions about whether gig workers can obtain equivalent mental health benefits of regular paid employment. Drawing on nationally representative data in the UK, this study aims to examine (1) whether transitioning from no paid work to gig work during Covid-19 is associated with better or worse mental health compared with those who remained not employed and those who became employed in regular jobs; (2) what mechanisms can explain the mental health differences; (3) how the patterns may differ by gender. The results show that transition into gig work is associated with better mental health compared with those who remained not employed, but this pattern is only for male (rather than female) gig workers and can be largely explained by their better financial situation and lower level of loneliness. For both men and women, the transition into gig work is associated with worse mental health compared with the transition into regular employment, but the mechanisms vary across genders. For male gig workers, both higher levels of financial precarity and loneliness in gig work can explain their mental health disadvantages compared with regular workers, but for female gig workers, none of them is at work. These findings facilitate a better understanding of the health consequences of the gig economy, revealing important gender-differentiated socio-psychological mechanisms through which gig work shapes mental health.

Working time variation and mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic in China

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about a significant shift in labor market dynamics, leading to a notable increase in labor market flexibilization. One prominent aspect of this transformation is the growing variation in working time patterns. The irregular and unpredictable nature of working time may contribute to increased stress levels, difficulty in establishing routines, and challenges in maintaining work-life boundaries. Drawing on China General Social survey 2021, this study aims to examine (1) the relationship between working time variation and mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic in China; (2) whether the relationship can be mediated by work-family conflict; (3) to what extent the relationship varies across occupations. We find that working time variation is associated with significantly worse mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic in China, and around half of the negative effect can be mediated by increased work-family conflict. Moreover, the negative association is more pronounced among non-professional occupations than professional occupations. Overall, these findings shed light on the detrimental impact of working time variation on mental health and its potential mechanism, highlighting how novel work paradigm may interact with existing labor market inequalities to shape workers' mental health.

Burnout and Its Antecedents: Considering Both Work and Household Time Claims, and Flexibility in Relation to Burnout

This study contributes to the previous literature by examining how flexible work arrangements interact with work and family time claims to affect burnout. It does so by providing a theoretical framework and empirical test of the interaction of flexibility with the effect of work and family time claims on burnout. Hypotheses and predictions based on previous literature are tested by Ordinary Least Squared regression models using data from the Time Competition Survey, constituting a sample of 1,058 employees of 89 function groups within 30 organizations. We found no main effects of work and family time claims or flexible work arrangements on burnout. However, the results do show an interaction of flexible working hours with the effect of work and family time claims on burnout. Specifically, the higher an individual's work and family time claims, the more this person benefits from having flexible working hours. In general, the results support the proposition that the relationship between work and family time claims and burnout differs for individuals with different levels of flexible work arrangements.

Demand-side consequences of unemployment and horizontal skill mismatches across national contexts: An employer-based factorial survey experiment

With growing flexibilization in the labour market, continuous and consistent career trajectories have become less the norm, and workers facing unemployment may need to look for employment opportunities outside the occupation they are trained in. But what are their employment chances? And what are the chances of returning to the occupation they were trained in after having worked in a different occupation? Despite much research on how employers evaluate job candidates with vertical skill mismatches (e.g. over-qualification and under-qualification) and unemployment, there is little research to investigate how employers view horizontal mismatch in comparison to unemployment, and whether a combination of both generates multiplicative negative effects. Using data gathered from an employer survey experiment in Switzerland and Greece, we find that in Switzerland both unemployment and horizontal mismatch significantly reduce employment chances, but the scarring effect of horizontal mismatch is much stronger. In contrast, in Greece horizontal mismatch significantly reduces employment chances but unemployment does not. Furthermore, we found that horizontal mismatch scarring is significantly stronger in Switzerland than in Greece. These findings suggest that the scarring effects of both unemployment and horizontal mismatch vary across contexts. Further analyses show that, rather than experiencing multiplicative scarring effects, unemployment does not add further disadvantages to mismatched candidates in either country, highlighting the importance of occupational specificity of skills in labour market matching. Overall, these findings facilitate a more nuanced understanding of demand-side labour market processes, highlighting the distinct interactive effects of unemployment and horizontal mismatch across national contexts.

Exploring the Longitudinal Relationship Between Lockdown Policy Stringency and Public Negative Emotions Among 120 Countries During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mediating Role of Population Mobility

BACKGROUND

To limit the spread of COVID-19, governments worldwide have implemented a series of lockdown policies to restrict the social activities of people. Although scholars suggest that such policies may produce negative effects on public emotions, the existing research is limited because it only provides a cross-sectional snapshot of the effect of lockdown policies in small and local samples. Using large-scale longitudinal cross-country data, the current study aims to gain a better understanding of the dynamic effect of lockdown policies on public emotions and their underlying mechanisms.

METHODS

Drawing on a large-scale longitudinal data from multiple sources, the study employs fixed-effects models to analyze the association between lagged lockdown policy stringency and public negative emotions among 120 countries from February to July 2020 (N = 9,141 country-day observations). The bootstrapping mediation test is used to examine the mediation effects of increased population mobility in residential areas.

RESULTS

The results show a statistically significant and positive association between lagged lockdown policy stringency and general public negative emotion (standardized coefficient = 0.32, CI = 0.30-0.35, p < 0.001). This pattern remains similar to other specific negative emotions, such as depression, anxiety, hopelessness, and helplessness. Moreover, the negative health effects of lockdown policy stringency are significantly mediated by increased mobility in residential areas (51-74% points, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

The findings confirm that stringent lockdown policies have a negative effect on public emotions via confining population mobility residential areas. To tackle the COVID-19, future public health policies should pay more attention to the unintended negative consequences of lockdown measures on public emotions.

Public and Commercial Medical Insurance Enrollment Rates of Rural-to-Urban Migrants in China

Objectives: Large-scale rural-to-urban migration of China has provoked heated discussion about the health of migrants and whether they have equal access to the health resources. This article aimed to compare the public and commercial medical insurance enrollment rates between temporary, permanent migrants and urban natives. Methods: Average marginal effects (AME) of the weighted logistic regression models using 2017 China General Social Survey from 2,068 urban natives, 1,285 temporary migrants, and 1,295 permanent migrants. Results: After controlling for the demographic and socio-economic characteristics, our results show that while the temporary and permanent migrants have a similar public insurance enrollment rate compared with the urban natives, both temporary and permanent migrants have significantly lower commercial insurance enrollment rates (7.5 and 5.3%, respectively) compared with the urban natives. Conclusions: The results highlight significant institutional barriers preventing the temporary migrants from gaining access to public medical insurance and the adverse impact of disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds on the access of temporary migrants to both public and commercial insurance.

Family Policy Awareness and Marital Intentions: A National Survey Experimental Study

Despite extensively examining the effects of family policies on marriage and fertility rates, previous research has paid little attention to the process of policy implementation and has implicitly assumed that individuals are fully aware of the policy information when making marital and fertility decisions. Challenging this assumption, we theorize policy awareness as an important mechanism for understanding the potential influence of family policies on individuals' marital intentions, an understudied yet crucial determinant of family formation behavior. In an experiment using a national survey of young unmarried individuals in Japan, respondents were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. The treatment group was informed about 17 Japanese family policy benefits, but most of the respondents knew none or only a few of these benefits. After exposure to the policy information, the treatment group had significantly higher marital intentions than the control group, which had similar baseline characteristics but no information exposure. Crucially, such positive effects were particularly pronounced among high-educated women and high- and low-educated men, reflecting the differentiated effects of policy awareness under Japan's traditional gender role norms. Overall, these findings highlight the pivotal role of policy awareness during the family formation process and contribute to the debate over whether and how family policies may influence different subpopulations.

Psychotherapy as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Coping Strategies and Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the development of several risk factors for mental health, not only for people directly infected but also for those experiencing social isolation, loneliness, and concern for their health. The impact of these factors on individuals' health and well-being also depends on the type of coping strategies adopted. Moreover, one of the main effects of COVID-19 is the increase in the prevalence of people who manifest anxious or depressive syndromes. This study investigates the relationship between coping strategies and a multidimensional assessment of anxiety symptoms measured during the COVID-19 pandemic in people who were having psychotherapy sessions, while participating in the study had psychotherapy sessions (clinical group) and those who have never done them (non-clinical group). The results of a questionnaire administered online to Italian subjects from June to July, 2020 were analyzed through multiple linear regressions methods to evaluate the role of psychotherapy as moderator between anxiety symptoms and coping strategies. The results of this study highlight that there are substantial differences in functioning between the clinical and non-clinical groups, underlying the key role of psychotherapy as a moderator between anxiety and the coping strategies of avoidance, social support, and positive attitude.

Exploring Extrinsic and Intrinsic Work Values of British Ethnic Minorities: The Roles of Demographic Background, Job Characteristics and Immigrant Generation

Despite the increasingly diverse ethnic composition of the British labor force, there is no research investigating whether ethnic minorities have different work values from the White British demographic (White British). Using nationally representative data (2012–2013), this article fills this gap by comparing extrinsic and intrinsic work values between White British and five ethnic minorities, while distinguishing between first and second generations. The results show that both first- and second- generation minorities have stronger extrinsic work values than White British, but the ethnic differences are more pronounced for the second generations. Compared to White British, while first-generation minorities have weaker intrinsic work values, the second generations have stronger intrinsic work values. Differences in extrinsic work values are partly explained by differences in age, education and income, while differences in intrinsic work values are largely explained by age, education and job autonomy. These results hold significant implications for understanding the career choices of ethnic minorities and labor market outcomes.

The Moderating Role of Resilience in the Personality-Mental Health Relationship During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Associations between personality traits and mental health outcomes (depression, anxiety, loneliness, and stress) have rarely been assessed in a population-representative sample of a high-income country during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, as far as we know, the role of health and social behaviors as well as resilience in the personality-mental health relationship has yet to be explored. Methods: A representative sample of 1,828 residents of Luxembourg filled in validated scales to assess personality traits and resilience, depressive symptoms, generalized anxiety, loneliness, and stress, indicating mental health, in mid-April 2020. Results: Approximately 21% of the participants scored above the cut-off for moderate depression and moderate loneliness. Moderate anxiety and moderate stress were present in 6.2 and 0.3% of the participants, respectively. Higher-educated respondents and those living in higher-value housing reported better mental health. Agreeableness and conscientiousness were most consistently associated with better mental health; neuroticism was most consistently associated with worse mental health. Spending more time on social media was also associated with elevated levels of all four mental health outcomes. Social and health behaviors did not change the personality-mental health relationships. Resilience moderated some of the personality-mental health associations, most consistently in neuroticism. Conclusions: Findings suggest educational and socioeconomic inequalities in mental health in a nationally representative sample during the COVID-19 confinement measures. Personality traits, particularly agreeableness, conscientiousness, and low neuroticism were associated with mental health. The moderating role of resilience in the personality-mental health relationship suggests intervention potential to improve mental health during periods of confinement.