Job loss and the mental health of spouses and adolescent children

Abstract

Panel data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey are used to examine the impact of involuntary job loss on the mental health of spouses and adolescent children. Estimates from fixed effects models show that the mental health of women (but not men) declines following a spouse's job loss, but only if that job loss results in a sustained period of non-employment or if the couple experienced prior financial hardship or relationship strain. A negative effect of parental job loss on the mental health of adolescent children is also found but is restricted to girls. JEL Classification: I31, J10, J65

Your spouse is fired! How much do you care?

“…First, policies aimed at alleviating the consequences of unemployment should also consider other household members and especially female partners. Second, in the spirit of Bubonya et al (2017), we argue that unemployment policies that simply provide monetary assistance are unlikely to restore affected families' well-being. At the same time, policies that seek to reduce the psychological burden related to the stigma of being unemployed or receiving While the dashed lines refer to the 95% confidence interval, the solid line denotes the coefficient estimates of {U S −2 , U S −1 , U S 0 , U S 1 , U S 2 } specified in Eq.…”

“…4 It thus differs from the related scholarship on the mental health consequences of spousal unemployment (e.g., Bubonya et al 2017;Marcus 2013;Mendolia 2014;Siegel et al 2003). At first sight, it may seem that mental health and subjective well-being are synonymous.…”

“…Using a logit fixed effects model and the first 14 waves of BHPS, she finds that both partners in British couples in which the man loses his job experience poor mental health. Bubonya et al (2017) utilize Australian panel data and mitigate reverse causality problems by relying on a fixed effects analysis in combination with lagged spousal unemployment. They demonstrate that husbands' mental health does not deteriorate due to their wives' job loss.…”

The Impact of Socio-Economic and Gender Factors on Common Mental Disorders Among Married Women

“…The results of the analysis show that the addition of a marriage duration of one year will reduce the tendency of women to experience common mental disorders. The longer the marriage, the social and common impulses between couples get stronger, then the financial stability in the family increases, thus reducing the level of common mental disorders of the wife [17].…”

“…The longer married the more depressed the level of depression does not differentiate between men and women. This is influenced by the social and emotional impulses between couples, then by marriage, the condition of financial stability will increase and increase the protective attitude on both sides [17]. A husband who does not work or loses a job will decrease income in the family.…”