Men’s Work Pathways and Physical and Mental Health at Midlife*

• In Event: 021 - Regular Session. Gender, Work, and Overwork

Abstract

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, this paper makes two significant contributions to the study of the relationship between men’s work and their health at middle age. First, this paper provides the first, to our knowledge, examination of men’s longitudinal work pathways using national data and prospective work histories and demonstrates substantial variation in men’s work patterns across the life course. We find that the majority of men (just under 80%) work at least 40 hours a week steadily over their twenties, thirties, and early forties. Notably, 20% of men do not follow this standard pattern, suggesting that men’s longitudinal workforce participation is much more diverse than is often acknowledged. Second, we find that men’s longitudinal work pathways are related to their health at middle age with men who following declining part-time and declining full-time positions experiencing poorer physical and mental health at middle age, although selection into work pathways and characteristics at age 40 account for some of these differences. Our findings suggests that the achievement of steady full-time work may provide long-term health benefits and that access to such stable employment is heavily stratified.
 

Authors

• Adrianne Frech, University of Akron

• Sarah Damaske, The Pennsylvania State University