Causal pathway or buffering? Social relationships and the adverse effect of unemployment on mental health

• In Event: 3129 - Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 16. Social Relationships and Health

Abstract

Social relationships are considered crucially important for understanding the adverse effect of unemployment on mental health. Social relationships are assumed to either bring about the health effects of unemployment (causal pathway hypothesis) or shield the unemployed from such effects (buffering hypothesis). However, there is scarce empirical evidence, especially based on longitudinal data, regarding these two hypotheses. In our analysis, we use up to ten waves of the “Labour Market and Social Security” (PASS) German panel study and apply fixed effects panel regressions to account for unobserved confounders. We test several indicators that cover different aspects of social relationships (number of strong and weak ties, conflict in the household, employed friends, general and job search-specific social support). We find no empirical support for the causal pathway hypothesis and only very limited support for the buffering hypothesis.

Authors

• Gerhard Krug, Institute for Employment Research (IAB)

• Sebastian Prechsl, Institute for Employment Research (IAB)