Anne Hammarström

Health consequences of youth unemployment--review from a gender perspective

Current research is classified into different theoretical approaches, mainly economic deprivation theories, stress-related theories, gender theories and different psychological and sociological theories. The correlations between unemployment and ill-health are explained as a result of both selection and exposure. The societal consequences of youth unemployment have been studied in aggregate studies. The familial consequences is a neglected area, but there is evidence of increased illness as well as battering of wives and children. Almost all research has been focused on the individual and mainly on the psychological consequences. Consistent relationships are found between unemployment and minor psychological disorders. Few studies have included somatic health but the results indicate increased physiological illness, especially among unemployed girls. Increased health care consumption has been documented. There are evidence that unemployment is a risk indicator for both increasing alcohol consumption, particularly in young men. Unemployment is also associated with increased tobacco consumption, increased use of illicit drugs as well as deteriorated health behaviour. The mortality rate is significantly higher among unemployed young men and women, especially in suicides and accidents. Social consequences include increased risk of alienation, lack of financial resources, criminality and future exclusion from the labour market. As mediating factors social support, high employment rate, negative attitudes towards work and high possibility of control have been documented to have a protective effect on health. Research should now be directed towards more qualitative methods, based on theoretical models, in order to search for deeper mechanisms, mediating factors and explanatory theories of the unevenly distributed health in society, in which unemployment has been proved to be one important factor.

Youth unemployment and ill health: Results from a 2-year follow-up study

A prospective study was started in 1981, including all 1083 pupils in the last year of compulsory school in a municipality in the northern part of Sweden. All pupils were followed up after 2 years. They were investigated with a comprehensive self-administered questionnaire as well as studies of records and interviews with teachers and school nurses. The total non-participation rate in the study was less than 1%. The main results of the study are the following: unemployment leads to increased psychosomatic and psychological symptoms, decreased social activities in clubs, increased abuse of alcohol and narcotics and increased utilization of health care services. The effects of unemployment are somewhat different among girls and among boys. Girls are more exposed to unemployment and unemployment also leads to more negative effects among them. Hidden unemployment has the same effects as unemployment but the effects are less pronounced.

The importance of childhood and adulthood aspects of gendered life for adult mental ill-health symptoms – a 27-year follow-up of the Northern Swedish Cohort

BackgroundThe increasing gender equality during the 20th century, mainly in the Nordic countries, represents a major social change. A well-established theory is that this may affect the mental health patterns of women and men. This study aimed at examining associations between childhood and adulthood gendered life on mental ill-health symptoms.MethodsA follow-up study of a cohort of all school leavers in a medium-sized industrial town in northern Sweden was performed from age 16 to age 42. Of those still alive of the original cohort, 94% (n = 1007) participated during the whole period. Gendered life was divided into three stages according to whether they were traditional or non-traditional (the latter includes equal): childhood (mother’s paid work position), adulthood at age 30 (ideology and childcare), and adulthood at age 42 (partnership and childcare). Mental ill-health was measured by self-reported anxious symptoms (“frequent nervousness”) and depressive symptoms (“frequent sadness”) at age 42. The statistical method was logistic regression analysis, finally adjusted for earlier mental ill-health symptoms and social confounding factors.ResultsGenerally, parents’ gendered life was not decisive for a person’s own gendered life, and adulthood gender position ruled out the impact of childhood gender experience on self-reported mental ill-health. For women, non-traditional gender ideology at age 30 was associated with decreased risk of anxious symptoms (76% for traditional childhood, 78% for non-traditional childhood). For men, non-traditional childcare at age 42 was associated with decreased risk of depressive symptoms (84% for traditional childhood, 78% for non-traditional childhood). A contradictory indication was that non-traditional women in childcare at age 30 had a threefold increased risk of anxious symptoms at age 42, but only when having experienced a traditional childhood.ConclusionAdulthood gender equality is generally good for self-reported mental health regardless of whether one opposes or continues one’s gendered history. However, the childcare findings indicate a differentiated picture; men seem to benefit in depressive symptoms from embracing this traditionally female duty, while women suffer anxious symptoms from departing from it, if their mother did not.