IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v353y2024ics0277953624004854.html

Young, Muslim and poor: The persistent impacts of the pandemic on mental health in the UK

Author

Listed:
  • Duarte Neves, Henrique
  • Asaria, Miqdad
  • Stabile, Mark

Abstract

Muslims in the UK experienced a much larger decline in mental health than the rest of the population during the pandemic and this decline persisted even as mental health in the rest of the population bounced back to pre-pandemic levels. We use panel data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) to decompose the mental health gap between Muslims and non-Muslims into those attributable to differences between the characteristics of the two groups and find that these differences - particularly Muslims being younger and being substantially overrepresented at the bottom of the income distribution - explain a substantial proportion of this gap. However, over a third of the Muslim-non-Muslim mental health gap remains unexplained by these factors and is driven by the experiences of Muslims who are neither young nor poor suggesting that this may be a result of discrimination experienced by the community. We conclude that being Muslim, being young, and being poor all independently contributed to experiencing a mental health gap and to the persistence of this gap.

Suggested Citation

  • Duarte Neves, Henrique & Asaria, Miqdad & Stabile, Mark, 2024. "Young, Muslim and poor: The persistent impacts of the pandemic on mental health in the UK," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 353(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:353:y:2024:i:c:s0277953624004854
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117032
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953624004854
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117032?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Myeong-Su Yun, 2005. "A Simple Solution to the Identification Problem in Detailed Wage Decompositions," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 43(4), pages 766-772, October.
    2. Lauren McLaren & Mark Johnson, 2007. "Resources, Group Conflict and Symbols: Explaining Anti-Immigration Hostility in Britain," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 55, pages 709-732, December.
    3. Oaxaca, Ronald, 1973. "Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 14(3), pages 693-709, October.
    4. Lea Ellwardt & Patrick Präg, 2021. "Heterogeneous Mental Health Development During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United Kingdom," Working Papers 2021-07, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    5. Fortin, Nicole & Lemieux, Thomas & Firpo, Sergio, 2011. "Decomposition Methods in Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 1, pages 1-102, Elsevier.
    6. Johnston, David W. & Lordan, Grace, 2012. "Discrimination makes me sick! An examination of the discrimination–health relationship," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 99-111.
    7. James Banks & Xiaowei Xu, 2020. "The Mental Health Effects of the First Two Months of Lockdown during the COVID‐19 Pandemic in the UK," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(3), pages 685-708, September.
    8. Eugenio Proto & Climent Quintana-Domeque, 2021. "COVID-19 and mental health deterioration by ethnicity and gender in the UK," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(1), pages 1-16, January.
    9. Alan S. Blinder, 1973. "Wage Discrimination: Reduced Form and Structural Estimates," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 8(4), pages 436-455.
    10. Ronald L. Oaxaca & Michael R. Ransom, 1999. "Identification in Detailed Wage Decompositions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(1), pages 154-157, February.
    11. David Neumark, 1988. "Employers' Discriminatory Behavior and the Estimation of Wage Discrimination," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 23(3), pages 279-295.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Golo Henseke & Ingrid Schoon, 2025. "Revisiting the Mental Health Impact of COVID-19 on Young Adults in the UK: Long-Term Trends, Temporary Setbacks, and Recovery," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 180(1), pages 91-112, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sonja C. Kassenboehmer & Mathias G. Sinning, 2014. "Distributional Changes in the Gender Wage Gap," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 67(2), pages 335-361, April.
    2. Bonaccolto-Töpfer, Marina & Briel, Stephanie, 2022. "The gender pay gap revisited: Does machine learning offer new insights?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    3. Nii-Aponsah, Hubert, 2022. "Automation exposure and implications in advanced and developing countries across gender, age, and skills," MERIT Working Papers 2022-021, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    4. Myeong-Su Yun & Eric S. Lin, 2015. "Alternative Estimator for Industrial Gender Wage Gaps: A Normalized Regression Approach," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(4), pages 569-587, October.
    5. Oaxaca, Ronald L. & Choe, Chung, 2016. "Wage Decompositions Using Panel Data Sample Selection Correction," IZA Discussion Papers 10157, IZA Network @ LISER.
    6. Etheridge, Ben & Spantig, Lisa, 2022. "The gender gap in mental well-being at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic: Evidence from the UK," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    7. Boris Kaiser, 2016. "Decomposing differences in arithmetic means: a doubly robust estimation approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 873-899, May.
    8. Oscar Molina Tejerina & Luis Castro Peñarrieta, 2020. "Unexplained Wage Gaps in the Tradable and Nontradable Sectors: Cross-Sectional Evidence by Gender in Bolivia," Investigación & Desarrollo 0120, Universidad Privada Boliviana.
    9. Bryan, Mark & Bryce, Andrew & Rice, Nigel & Roberts, Jennifer & Sechel, Cristina, 2022. "Exploring mental health disability gaps in the labour market: the UK experience during COVID-19," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    10. Liu, Hong & Fang, Hai & Zhao, Zhong, 2013. "Urban–rural disparities of child health and nutritional status in China from 1989 to 2006," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 294-309.
    11. Hansen, Henrik & Rand, John & Win, Ngu Wah, 2022. "The gender wage gap in Myanmar: Adding insult to injury?," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    12. Juan Acosta-Ballesteros & María del Pilar Osorno-del Rosal & Olga María Rodríguez-Rodríguez, 2021. "Measuring the effect of gender segregation on the gender gap in time-related underemployment," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 55(1), pages 1-16, December.
    13. Nikolic, Jelena & Rubil, Ivica & Tomić, Iva, 2017. "Pre-crisis reforms, austerity measures and the public-private wage gap in two emerging economies," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 248-265.
    14. Niels-Hugo Blunch & Maitreyi Bordia Das, 2015. "Changing norms about gender inequality in education: Evidence from Bangladesh," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(6), pages 183-218.
    15. Carl Lin & Tony Fang & Mei Hsu, 2024. "Migrants from a Different Shore: Earnings and Economic Assimilation of Immigrants from China in the United States," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 305-349, September.
    16. Mohamed Amara & Wajih Khallouli & Faicel Zidi, 2024. "Public–private wage differentials in Tunisia: Consistency and decomposition," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 38(3), pages 295-330, September.
    17. Chuang, Hwei-Lin & Lin, Eric S. & Chiu, Shih-Yung, 2018. "The gender wage gap in the financial industry: Evidence from the interindustry ranking," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 246-258.
    18. Sergey Roshchin & Natalya Yemelina, 2021. "Gender wage gap decomposition methods: Comparative analysis," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 62, pages 5-31.
    19. ChangHwan Kim, 2010. "Decomposing the Change in the Wage Gap Between White and Black Men Over Time, 1980-2005: An Extension of the Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition Method," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 38(4), pages 619-651, May.
    20. Liam Delaney & Colm Harmon & Cathy Remond, 2010. "Decomposing Gender Differences in College Student Earnings Expectations," Working Papers 201038, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:353:y:2024:i:c:s0277953624004854. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.