IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0121573.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Association between Education and Work Stress: Does the Policy Context Matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Thorsten Lunau
  • Johannes Siegrist
  • Nico Dragano
  • Morten Wahrendorf

Abstract

Objectives: Several studies report socioeconomic differences in work stress, where people in lower socioeconomic positions (SEP) are more likely to experience this burden. In the current study, we analyse associations between education and work stress in a large sample of workers from 16 European countries. In addition we explore whether distinct national labour market policies are related to smaller inequalities in work stress according to educational attainment. Methods: We use data collected in 2010/11 in two comparative studies (‘Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe’ and the ‘English Longitudinal Study of Ageing’; N = 13695), with samples of men and women aged 50 to 64 from 16 European countries. We measure highest educational degree according to the international standard classification of education (ISCED) and assess work stress in terms of the demand-control and the effort-reward imbalance model. National labour market policies are measured on the basis of policy indicators which are divided into (1) ‘protective’ policies offering financial compensation to those excluded from the labour market (e.g. replacement rate), and (2) ‘integrative’ policies supporting disadvantaged individuals on the labour market (e.g. investments into active labour market policies or possibilities for further qualification in later life). In addition to country-specific analyses, we estimate multilevel models and test for interactions between the indicators of national policies and individual education. Results: Main findings demonstrate consistent associations between lower education and higher levels of work stress in all countries. The strength of this association, however, varies across countries and is comparatively small in countries offering pronounced ‘integrative’ policies, in terms of high investments into measures of an active labor market policy and high participation rates in lifelong learning activities. Conclusions: Our results point to different types of policies that may help to reduce educational differences in work stress, in particular policies supporting those who are disadvantaged on the labour market.

Suggested Citation

  • Thorsten Lunau & Johannes Siegrist & Nico Dragano & Morten Wahrendorf, 2015. "The Association between Education and Work Stress: Does the Policy Context Matter?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-17, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0121573
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0121573
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0121573
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0121573&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0121573?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Valentina Gallo & Johan P Mackenbach & Majid Ezzati & Gwenn Menvielle & Anton E Kunst & Sabine Rohrmann & Rudolf Kaaks & Birgit Teucher & Heiner Boeing & Manuela M Bergmann & Anne Tjønneland & Susanne, 2012. "Social Inequalities and Mortality in Europe – Results from a Large Multi-National Cohort," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(7), pages 1-10, July.
    2. Ibrahim, S. & Smith, P. & Muntaner, C., 2009. "A multi-group cross-lagged analyses of work stressors and health using Canadian National sample," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 49-59, January.
    3. Jones, Melanie K. & Latreille, Paul L. & Sloane, Peter J. & Staneva, Anita V., 2013. "Work-related health risks in Europe: Are older workers more vulnerable?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 18-29.
    4. Jan Boone & Jan Ours, 2009. "Bringing Unemployed Back to Work: Effective Active Labor Market Policies," De Economist, Springer, vol. 157(3), pages 293-313, September.
    5. Immervoll, Herwig, 2012. "Activation policies in OECD countries : an overview of current approaches," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 71903, The World Bank.
    6. Solja T Nyberg & Eleonor I Fransson & Katriina Heikkilä & Lars Alfredsson & Annalisa Casini & Els Clays & Dirk De Bacquer & Nico Dragano & Raimund Erbel & Jane E Ferrie & Mark Hamer & Karl-Heinz Jöcke, 2013. "Job Strain and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors: Meta-Analysis of Individual-Participant Data from 47,000 Men and Women," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(6), pages 1-6, June.
    7. Siegrist, Johannes & Starke, Dagmar & Chandola, Tarani & Godin, Isabelle & Marmot, Michael & Niedhammer, Isabelle & Peter, Richard, 2004. "The measurement of effort-reward imbalance at work: European comparisons," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(8), pages 1483-1499, April.
    8. Herwig Immervoll & Stefano Scarpetta, 2012. "Activation and employment support policies in OECD countries. An overview of current approaches," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-20, December.
    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. Shervin Assari & Mohsen Bazargan, 2019. "Unequal Associations between Educational Attainment and Occupational Stress across Racial and Ethnic Groups," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-11, September.
    2. Galit Weinstein, 2016. "Childhood conditions and current physical performance among non-institutionalized individuals aged 50+ in Israel," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 335-347, December.
    3. Florian Junne & Martina Michaelis & Eva Rothermund & Felicitas Stuber & Harald Gündel & Stephan Zipfel & Monika A. Rieger, 2018. "The Role of Work-Related Factors in the Development of Psychological Distress and Associated Mental Disorders: Differential Views of Human Resource Managers, Occupational Physicians, Primary Care Phys," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-17, March.
    4. Adriaan Kalwij, 2019. "The socio-economic status gradient in median lifespan by birth cohorts: Evidence from Dutch Olympic athletes born between 1852 and 1947," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(12), pages 1-11, December.
    5. Syeda A. Tanveer & Ashar Afaq & Montaser N. Alqutub & Nada Aldahiyan & Abdulrahman M. AlMubarak & Amynah C. Shaikh & Mustafa Naseem & Fahim Vohra & Tariq Abduljabbar, 2021. "Association of Self-Perceived Psychological Stress with the Periodontal Health of Socially Deprived Women in Shelter Homes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-8, May.
    6. Jana Mäcken, 2019. "Work stress among older employees in Germany: Effects on health and retirement age," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(2), pages 1-13, February.

    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. Michelle Peterie & Gaby Ramia & Greg Marston & Roger Patulny, 2019. "Emotional Compliance and Emotion as Resistance: Shame and Anger among the Long-Term Unemployed," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 33(5), pages 794-811, October.
    2. Eichhorst, Werner & Rinne, Ulf, 2016. "Promoting Youth Employment in Europe: Evidence-based Policy Lessons," IZA Policy Papers 119, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Avram, Silvia & Brewer, Mike & Salvatori, Andrea, 2018. "Can't work or won't work: Quasi-experimental evidence on work search requirements for single parents," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 63-85.
    4. Katharina Dengler, 2019. "Effectiveness of sequences of classroom training for welfare recipients: what works best in West Germany?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(1), pages 1-46, January.
    5. Antonia Asenjo & Verónica Escudero & Hannah Liepmann, 2024. "Why Should we Integrate Income and Employment Support? A Conceptual and Empirical Investigation," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 60(1), pages 1-29, January.
    6. Kamil Galuščák & Petr Hlaváč & Petr Jakubík, 2016. "Household resilience to adverse macroeconomic shocks: evidence from Czech microdata," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(3), pages 377-402, May.
    7. Sümeyra Akarçeşme & Ane Aranguiz; & Anna Lemmens; & Bea Cantillon;, 2023. "Reaching the European 2030 poverty target: The imperative for balancing the EU Social Agenda," Working Papers 2311, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    8. Sarah Marchal & Mechelen, N. van, 2013. "GINI DP 87: Activation strategies within European minimum income schemes," GINI Discussion Papers 87, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    9. Sarah Marchal & Linus Sióland, 2019. "A safety net that holds? Tracking minimum income protection adequacy for the elderly, the working and the non-working of active age," Working Papers 1909, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    10. Roberto Iacono, 2017. "Minimum income schemes in Europe: is there a trade-off with activation policies?," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 6(1), pages 1-15, December.
    11. James Browne & Herwig Immervoll, 2017. "Mechanics of replacing benefit systems with a basic income: comparative results from a microsimulation approach," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 15(4), pages 325-344, December.
    12. Golo Henseke, 2018. "Good jobs, good pay, better health? The effects of job quality on health among older European workers," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 19(1), pages 59-73, January.
    13. Fernandez, Rodrigo & Immervoll, Herwig & Pacifico, Daniele & Thévenot, Céline, 2016. "Faces of Joblessness: Characterising Employment Barriers to Inform Policy," IZA Discussion Papers 9954, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. N. N., 2017. "WIFO-Monatsberichte, Heft 6/2017," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 90(6), June.
    15. Jana Mäcken, 2019. "Work stress among older employees in Germany: Effects on health and retirement age," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(2), pages 1-13, February.
    16. René Schilling & Flora Colledge & Sebastian Ludyga & Uwe Pühse & Serge Brand & Markus Gerber, 2019. "Does Cardiorespiratory Fitness Moderate the Association between Occupational Stress, Cardiovascular Risk, and Mental Health in Police Officers?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-19, July.
    17. Ulrike Huemer & Rainer Eppel & Marion Kogler & Helmut Mahringer & Lukas Schmoigl & David Pichler, 2021. "Effektivität von Instrumenten der aktiven Arbeitsmarktpolitik in unterschiedlichen Konjunkturphasen," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 67250, February.
    18. Karl Aiginger & Marcus Scheiblecker, 2016. "Österreich 2025 – Eine Agenda für mehr Dynamik, sozialen Ausgleich und ökologische Nachhaltigkeit. Fortschrittsbericht," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 58885, February.
    19. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Dahmann, Sarah C. & Gielen, Anne C., 2020. "The Intergenerational Effects of Requiring Unemployment Benefit Recipients to Engage in Non-Search Activities," IZA Discussion Papers 13618, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Rainer Eppel & Helmut Mahringer & Petra Sauer, 2017. "Österreich 2025 – Arbeitslosigkeit und die Rolle der aktiven Arbeitsmarktpolitik," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 90(6), pages 493-505, June.

    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:plo:pone00:0121573. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.