Unemployment and Health: International and Interdisciplinary Perspectives

324 Pages·2006·1.6 MB·English

by  Thomas Kieselbach

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Unemployment
and Health
International and
Interdisciplinary
Perspectives
Edited by
Thomas Kieselbach, Anthony H. Winefield,
Carolyn Boyd and Sarah Anderson
+
%
First published in 2006 from a completed manuscript presented to
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Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Unemployment and health:
international and interdisciplinary perspectives.
eBook ISBN9781875378616
1. Unemployment — Health aspects. 2. Unemployment — Psychological
aspects. 3. Unemployment — Social aspects. I. Kieselbach, Thomas.
II. Winefield, Anthony H. (Anthony Harold), 1937–.
331.137
Cover design by Andrea Rinarelli of Australian Academic Press, Brisbane.
Editing and typesetting by Australian Academic Press, Brisbane.
CONTENTS
Foreword vii
Introduction ix
SECTION 1
Health Effects of Unemployment
Chapter 1
Explanations for Deteriorating Wellbeing in Unemployed People:
Specific Unemployment Theories and Beyond 1
Peter A. Creed and Dee Bartrum
Chapter 2
Insecurity, the Restructuring of Unemployment and Mental Health 21
David Fryer
Chapter 3
Justice Concerns and Mental Health During Unemployment 35
Claudia Dalbert
Chapter 4
Quantitative Reviews in Psychological Unemployment Research:
An Overview 51
Karsten Ingmar Paul and Klaus Moser
Chapter 5
Unemployment, Secure Employment and Insecure Employment:
Differences in Self-Reported Ill Health 61
Bengt Starrin and Staffan Janson
Chapter 6
The Finances–Shame Model and the Relation Between
Unemployment and Health 75
Bengt Starrin and Leif R. Jönsson
Chapter 7
Retrenchment and Health Parameters: A Short Report 99
Dimity Pond, Elizabeth Harris, Parker Magin, Amber Sutton,
Vanessa Traynor, Kate D’Este and Susan Goode
CONTENTS
(CONTINUED)
SECTION 1
(CONTINUED)
Chapter 8
Suicidal Ideation in the Long-Term Unemployed:
A Five-Year Longitudinal Study 109
Bjørgulf Claussen
Chapter 9
Quality of Life of the Employed and Unemployed in Turkey:
A Comparative Field Study 119
Yucel Demiral, Alp Ergör, Belgin Unal and Semih Semin
Chapter 10
Health and Lifestyle of Reemployed and Unemployed People
Following the Japanese Corporate Reorganisation Law 127
Tatsuya Ishitake and Tsunetaka Matoba
Chapter 11
Do the Health Consequences of Unemployment Differ
For Young Men and Women? 135
Anne Hammarström and Urban Janlert
Chapter 12
Mass Lay-Offs and Tolerance for Mental Illness: Racial Differences
in the Economy’s Effect on Coerced Treatment 143
Eric Kessell and Ralph Catalano
Chapter 13
Demographic, Occupational and Employer-Related Determinants
of Long-Term Unemployment Among Danish Employees 157
Thomas Lund and Merete Labriola
Chapter 14
Organisational Citizenship Behaviours in Relation to Job Status,
Job Insecurity, Organisation Commitment and Identification,
Job Satisfaction and Work Values 167
N.T. Feather and Katrin A. Rauter
CONTENTS
(CONTINUED)
SECTION 2
Interventions to Limit the Health Effects of Unemployment:
Activation Policies and Empowerment
Chapter 15
Active Labour Market Programs for Young Long-Term Unemployed:
Psychological Impact of Participation in a Recent Program 181
Anthony H. Winefield and Edgar Carson
Chapter 16
Explaining the Negative Relationship Between Length
of Unemployment and the Willingness to Undertake a Job Training:
A Self-Determination Perspective 199
Maarten Vansteenkiste, Hans De Witte and Willy Lens
Chapter 17
The Role of Limited Duration Contracts in Labour Market Transition 219
Ola Bergström
Chapter 18
Youth Unemployment and the Risk of Social Exclusion
in Six European Countries 233
Thomas Kieselbach
Chapter 19
Can Volunteering Be a Moderator of the Detrimental Effects
of Engagement in (Un)Employment? 259
Jacques C. Metzer
Chapter 20
Restructuring and Outplacement in the Netherlands 267
Ellen Heuven, Arnold Bakker and Wilmar Schaufeli
Chapter 21
Unemployment and Activation Policy: The Finnish Experience 285
Simo Mannila
About the Contributors 303

Foreword
There is ample circumstantial evidence indicating that unemployment,
and underemployment, can cause or contribute to physical, mental and
social morbidity.
According to the United Nations Convention on Human Rights, the
member states ‘recognise the right to work, which includes the right of
everyone to the opportunity to gain his living by work which he freely
chooses or accepts, and will take appropriate steps to safeguard this right’.
In the same vein, the European Council concludes that ‘regaining full
employment not only involves focusing on more jobs, but also on better
jobs. Increased efforts should be made to promote a good working envi-
ronment for all, including equal opportunities for the disabled, gender
equality, good and flexible work organisation permitting better reconcilia-
tion of working and personal life, lifelong learning, health and safety at
work, employee involvement and diversity in working life’.
And, according to Article 152 of the Treaty of Amsterdam, ‘a high level
of human health protection shall be ensured in the definition and imple-
mentation of all Community policies and activities’.
Briefly, then, the insights exist. But they are not implemented.
Given the present world rates of unemployment, underemployment and
overemployment, there is an urgent need for integrative approaches to:
• minimise unemployment and underemployment
• minimise overemployment
• promote ‘the good job’
• humanise workforce restructuring.
By bringing together researchers from all over the world and from a range
of different disciplines, this book makes an important contribution to our
understanding of the complex range of issues involved in combating the
problems caused by unemployment and underemployment.
Lennart Levi
Karolinska Institute, Sweden
vii
viii
Introduction
The objective of this book is to present important new findings from leading
researchers who have examined the health impact of unemployment and
underemployment on the individual and the community. Importantly, this
book brings together research findings from Europe, Australia, Asia and the
United States, and across the fields of psychology, medicine, economics, soci-
ology, occupational health and organisational development.
There is growing interest in employment research, due to the recogni-
tion that unemployment and unstable employment can result in negative
health effects. In a world work environment where there is an increase in
temporary and contract work (so-called ‘flexible [precarious] employ-
ment’), where working part-time is more common, and where people may
be expected to retrain for new careers several times over, workers are
increasingly subjected to new work-related pressures. These changes in the
work environment bring financial and social costs to both the individual
and society, and research is needed to measure these costs and identify
methods of reducing them.
This book addresses this growing interest in employment and unem-
ployment research, by compiling papers based on presentations by leading
researchers at the Second International Expert Conference organised by the
Scientific Committee Unemployment and Health of the International
Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) on ‘Occupational
Transitions: Unemployment, Underemployment and Health’, held in
Adelaide, Australia in December, 2001. The activities of this body bring
together researchers working specifically on occupational health issues
related to employment with those focusing on the health effects of being
out of work in a society centred on paid employment. Thus the ICOH
Scientific Committee tries to bridge these two areas that are traditionally
separated and to reduce the gap between unemployment research and occu-
pational health. The Adelaide conference was the second international con-
ference. The first one, held in Paris in 1998, focused on interventions with
unemployed people.
Additional contributions have been invited from other leading
researchers who were unable to attend the conference. The main aim of the
book is to outline current theory and findings about the factors responsible
for the generally detrimental health effects of being out of work or in
unstable employment. In this context, the mechanisms underlying the
ix