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The effects of household joblessness on mental health

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  • Scutella, Rosanna
  • Wooden, Mark

Abstract

It is widely assumed that the economic and social costs that unemployment gives rise to must be exacerbated where joblessness is concentrated within families. This hypothesis is tested in this paper. Specifically, data from the first five waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (HILDA), a nationally representative household panel survey administered in Australia, are used to test whether jobless individuals score worse on a measure of mental health when they live in households with other jobless people. Consistent with previous research, unemployment is found to be associated with lower levels of mental health. No evidence, however, can be found for any additional disadvantage to the unemployed stemming from living in a jobless household.

Suggested Citation

  • Scutella, Rosanna & Wooden, Mark, 2008. "The effects of household joblessness on mental health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 88-100, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:67:y:2008:i:1:p:88-100
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    2. Esteban Calvo & Christine Mair, 2014. "The Multiplicative Effect of Individual- and Country-level Unemployment on Life Satisfaction in 97 Nations (1981-2009)," Working Papers 49, Facultad de Economía y Empresa, Universidad Diego Portales.
    3. Alessandro Crociata & Massimiliano Agovino & Pier Sacco, 2014. "Cultural Access and Mental Health: An Exploratory Study," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 118(1), pages 219-233, August.
    4. Nicolas Hérault & Guyonne Kalb & Rezida Zakirova, 2011. "Dynamics of Household Joblessness: Evidence from Australian Micro-Data 2001–2007," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2011n10, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    5. Peter Butterworth & Carmel Poyser & Aino Suomi, 2021. "Mental Health," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 54(4), pages 530-541, December.
    6. Maike Luhmann & Pola Weiss & Georg Hosoya & Michael Eid, 2014. "Honey, I got Fired! A Longitudinal Dyadic Analysis of the Effect of Unemployment on Life Satisfaction in Couples," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 724, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    7. Nataliya Ilyushina, 2023. "Redefining Parent's Unpaid Labour: Distinguishing Errands from Housework for Targeted Mental Health Policy," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 56(4), pages 516-523, December.
    8. Andreas Knabe & Ronnie Schöb & Joachim Weimann, 2012. "Partnership, Gender Roles and the Well-Being Cost of Unemployment," CESifo Working Paper Series 3932, CESifo.
    9. Rui Zhang & Yunzhi Zhang & Zhe Dai, 2022. "Impact of Natural Disasters on Mental Health: A Cross-Sectional Study Based on the 2014 China Family Panel Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-17, February.
    10. Marilina Santero & Santiago Melendi & Akram Hernández-Vásquez & Vilma Irazola, 2019. "Socio-economic inequalities in smoking prevalence and involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke in Argentina: Analysis of three cross-sectional nationally representative surveys in 2005, 2009 and 2013," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(6), pages 1-16, June.

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