Precarious Work in Europe: Latent Classes of Economic Stressors in Relation to Well-Being and Training, and the Moderating Role of Country-Level Prevalence

Abstract

Previous research has established negative effects of specific economic stressors, such as job insecurity or financial stress, on well-being and behavior. This study aimed to explore patterns of subjective and objective, employment-related and income-related economic stressors. We also investigate how these patterns relate to mental well-being, and training participation as an important resource development activity. To account for environmental constraints as contextual influences, we tested the prevalence of a given pattern at the country level as a moderator. Applying latent class analysis to two cross-sectional samples (N1 = 34,410, N2 = 60,410) from the European Working Conditions Survey, we identified three distinct classes in both samples: 1) low economic stressors (low scores on all indicators), 2) high economic stressors (high scores on all indicators), and 3) subjective stressors dominant (low scores on objective, but high scores on subjective indicators). The low economic stressors class reported the best mental well-being and highest training participation compared to the other two classes. Workers in the subjective stressors dominant class reported comparable mental well-being to those with high economic stressors. Contrary to our expectations, there was weak evidence that belonging to the high economic stressors class was less strongly associated with mental well-being in countries where this class was more prevalent. The study underlines the importance of considering the whole range, as well as heterogenous patterns of economic stressors, and answers calls for more research on contextual effects, for a nuanced understanding of the relations between economic stressors, well-being and behavior.