Primary Submission Category: Mental health/function
Examining the relationships between labor market, family functioning and mental health of native- and foreign-born mothers in the United States
Authors: Sima Bou Jawde, Carmel Salhi,
Presenting Author: Sima Bou Jawde*
Introduction: Population health research examines health of families as impacted by economic hardship, but few studies examine the role of labor market and family functioning on women’s health.
Research gap: Labor market precarity and labor within the household are important aspects of family and immigrant health research but remain virtually understudied.
Methods: We use waves 1 and 5 in the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing study to examine the relationship of labor market factors on the mental health of mothers via family functioning. For our exposure, we capture labor market characteristics such as “working more than one job” and “working different shifts.” Mother’s mental health is captured through Composite International Diagnostic Interview scale (CIDI) reported in wave five. Family functioning is the mediating variable, and an example is “you eat dinner with child in a day”. We plan to run a Structural Equation Model to draw significant relationships across labor market factors to mother’s mental health.
Hypothesis: 1) An exploitative labor market increases mother’s mental distress via poor working conditions and decrease family functioning, 2) better working conditions will directly and indirectly decrease mental distress via family functioning, and 3) the relationships strengths and directionality will vary according to nativity status.
Preliminary & anticipated results: Labor market structures have a significantly positive direct effect on anxiety (β=0.29, p=0.010), and significantly negative effect on family functioning, like ability to have dinner together (β=-0.26, p=0.006). For stratified anticipated results, we anticipate that foreign born mothers may experience a weaker effect of labor market structure on anxiety, and family functioning may buffer that relationship but to a lesser extent than native-born mothers. Thus, while labor market structures may impact the health of families, its effects are informed by nativity, gender and family functioning in ways that deserve further investigation.