Background: While a strong negative impact of unemployment on health has been established, the present research examined the lesser studied interplay of gender, social context and job loss on health trajectories. Methods: Data from the German Socio-Economic Panel was used, which provided a representative sample of 6838 participants. Using latent growth modelling the effects of gender, social context (East vs. West Germans), unemployment (none, short-term or long-term), and their interactions were examined on health (single item measures of self-rated health and life satisfaction respectively). Results: Social context in general significantly predicted the trajectories of self-rated health and life satisfaction. Most notably, data analysis revealed that West German women reported significantly lower baseline values of self-rated health following unemployment and did not recover to the levels of their East German counterparts. Only long-term, not short-term unemployment was related to lower baseline values of self-rated health, whereas, in relation to baseline values of life satisfaction, both types of unemployment had a similar negative effect. Conclusions: In an economic crisis, individuals who already carry a higher burden, and not only those most directly affected economically, may show the greatest health effects.
CITATION STYLE
Altweck, L., Hahm, S., Muehlan, H., Gfesser, T., Ulke, C., Speerforck, S., … Schmidt, S. (2021). The interplay of gender, social context, and long-term unemployment effects on subjective health trajectories. BMC Public Health, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10324-8
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