The relationship between employment and mental health problems in Italy: evidence from EHIS2 microdata

Abstract

This paper investigates the role that permanent and full-time job have on the mental health variables of employees using microdata from the 2nd Wave of the European Health Interview Survey controlling for gender, socio-economic status, tighter (marital status, social network) and looser (degree of urbanization of the area in which the individual lives, geographical area) socio-environmental variables, and health status (chronic diseases, chronic anxiety). Employing a linear regression model with a large dummy-variables set, the main results on the relationship between the employment and mental health problems of the entire sample of individuals between 25–64 years show that in Italy employees with permanent and full-time job have lower probability of having mental health problems compared to the employees without permanent and full-time job; the economic sector where the probability of suffering from MH problems is higher in Energy and Manufacturing, while are the managers to have a lower probability of suffering from MH problems. Furthermore, the results seem to confirm that in Italy there are gender differences in mental health problems, with males suffering less from overall MH compared to the females, taking into account education, income or the economic sector where they work or the occupation they carry on. Also, the results seem to confirm that there are differences between the Italian regions: a high level of education increases the probability of suffering from mental health problems in the Southern regions while a narrow social network seems to be an important factor in order to increase mental health problems in the Northern regions. To weight status is associated a higher probability of having mental health problems, more in the Southern regions than in the Northern ones. Albeit with the limitations discussed in the paper, the results we obtained by analyzing the relationship between mental health problems and employment in Italy underline the key dimension of mental health of our all lives.