A test of reciprocal risk between undesirable economic and noneconomic life events

Abstract

The proposition that undesirable life experiences are risk factors for each other was explored by testing several hypotheses concerning the temporal relationships between economic and noneconomic life events. The tests were conducted using data describing the incidence of stressful experiences among approximately 3,500 Anglo and Hispanic residents of Los Angeles County. Findings suggested that Anglo men who have undesirable economic life experiences are at increased risk of subsequent undesirable noneconomic experiences. Anglo women, however, exhibited the opposite pattern in that those with undesirable noneconomic experiences were at greater risk of subsequent undesirable economic experiences. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed.

The Health Effects of Economic Decline

“…The countercyclical literature reports that declining economies increase the incidence of stressful job and financial events and that these events increase the likelihood of experiencing other stressors not intuitively associated with the economy (such as marital difficulties) (28, 144). The literature also includes reports of economic decline increasing the anticipation of stressful experiences, including job loss and difficulty meeting financial obligations (104).…”

Economic downturns and male cesarean deliveries: a time-series test of the economic stress hypothesis

“…This hypothesis asserts that adaptations to unwanted changes in the ambient environment may disrupt normal behavior and physiology which could, in turn, induce health sequelae. Examples of responses to economic downturns include undesirable economic (e.g., job loss, difficulty paying bills) or non-economic (e.g., family problems, change of residence) life events, all of which may prove stressful and increase the incidence of illness [6,10-12]. Additionally, even among those who remain working, anxiety, depression and poor self-reported health increase following economic downturns [13,14].…”

Volunteering, income and health

“…More concretely, Day and Devlin [20], Day and Devlin [21], Prouteau and Wolff [22], Hackl et al [23], Cozzi et al [24] and Sauer [25] found statistically significantly positive effects of volunteer work on income based on administrative and survey data for Austria, Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. Given this evidence and the well-established positive association between income and health [19, 26–31], one could expect that volunteering has, besides its aforementioned direct effect, also an indirect beneficial effect on health outcomes via income.…”