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International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health
Published in: International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health 7/2019

01-10-2019 | Original Article

Temporary employment, work stress and mental health before and after the Spanish economic recession

Authors: Xavier Bartoll, Joan Gil, Raul Ramos

Published in: International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health | Issue 7/2019

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper analyses the effects of temporary employment on work stress and mental health before (2006/2007) and during the economic recession (2011/2012), and examines whether the economic recession worsened these two health outcomes.

Methods

To control for selection bias, propensity scores (PS) are computed separately for salaried men and women using microdata from two cross-sectional health surveys in Spain, considering temporary (treatment group) versus permanent employment (control group). Next, we use difference-in-difference estimators stratifying by age, education level, and regional unemployment differences using PS as weights.

Results

Our results indicate that salaried worker with a temporary labour contract tends to have similar levels of high work stress and poorer mental health (only for men) than permanent ones for both periods. The economic recession does not appear to worsen both outcomes. However, when stratifying the sample, the economic recession is responsible for increasing stress among older temporary workers and male university graduates, without affecting women. Regarding mental health, we only find evidence of a negative impact of the economic recession on male temporary workers with university education.

Conclusion

The economic recession has not affected poor mental health, but it has accentuated the adverse effects of work stress among some specific subgroups of male workers. These subgroups require specific preventive and support actions as the Spanish firms have not substantially changed their hiring practices after the recession.
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Metadata
Title
Temporary employment, work stress and mental health before and after the Spanish economic recession
Authors
Xavier Bartoll
Joan Gil
Raul Ramos
Publication date
01-10-2019
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in
International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health / Issue 7/2019
Print ISSN: 0340-0131
Electronic ISSN: 1432-1246
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-019-01443-2

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