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How Does the Involuntary Choice of Self-Employment Affect Subjective Well-Being in Small-Sized Business Workers? A Cross-Sectional Study from the Fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey

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  • SangJin Park

    (Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Gyeongsang National University Changwon Hospital, College of Medicine, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52727, Korea)

  • Chulyong Park

    (Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Yeungnam University Hospital, Daegu 42415, Korea
    Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, College of Medicine, Yeungnam University, Daegu 42415, Korea)

  • Joo Hyun Sung

    (Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Institute of Health Sciences, Gyeongsang National University Changwon Hospital, College of Medicine, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52727, Korea)

Abstract

In South Korea, self-employed workers comprise 24.6% of the working population—among which 99.7% were found to operate with less than 50 employees. However, few studies have investigated the effects of an involuntary choice of self-employment. In this study, based on the fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey, the factors affecting subjective well-being and mental health in small business owners with less than 50 employees among service/sales workers, who account for more than half of the self-employed population in Korea, were analyzed by the World Health Organization—Five Well-Being Index, using the Student’s t -test, ANOVA and logistic regression analysis. Results showed that the well-being level for those who opted for self-employment involuntarily was lower than those who chose it voluntarily. Then, participants were separated into two groups according to sex; the degree corresponding to the poor well-being score group was compared, and that of the group who chose self-employment because they could not find any other work was significantly higher than that of the group who chose it voluntarily, in both men and women, and this was similar even after correcting for covariance. As the number of people being forced to choose self-employment is expected to further increase after the outbreak of COVID-19, future studies should be conducted to improve subjective well-being of such workers.

Suggested Citation

  • SangJin Park & Chulyong Park & Joo Hyun Sung, 2022. "How Does the Involuntary Choice of Self-Employment Affect Subjective Well-Being in Small-Sized Business Workers? A Cross-Sectional Study from the Fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-10, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:2:p:1011-:d:726633
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Graeber, Daniel & Kritikos, Alexander S. & Seebauer, Johannes, 2021. "COVID-19: a crisis of the female self-employed," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 34(4), pages 1141-1187.
    2. Chunil Kim & Hyobi Choi & Yeol Choi, 2021. "Retirement Age and Housing Consumption: The Case of South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-21, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Nataliya Nerobkova & Yu Shin Park & Eun-Cheol Park & Suk-Yong Jang, 2022. "The Association between Working Hours Flexibility and Well-Being Prior to and during COVID-19 in South Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-11, July.

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