Stress and Adult Health: Impact of Time Spent in Paid and Unpaid Work, and its Division in Families

Based on a sample representative of the Canadian population aged 30-59, this paper assesses the impact of time spent on productive activities, and various types of activities, on stress and health. The main finding is that the number of hours spent is a better predictor of stress than is the type of activity. Moreover, the effects of paid and unpaid work are additive rather than multiplicative. That is, the more people work, regardless of what they are doing, the more likely they are to feel stressed. Still, working irregular hours and non-traditional family models are also associated with poorer health and reduced stress. Being married appears to mitigate the effect of unpaid work on stress, but does not mitigate the effect of paid work on stress. The effects are similar, though weaker, for health, reflecting that the effects of hours worked are more likely to be long term and that there is probably an endogenous relation between health and current labour force status.

基于一个能代表加拿大30 - 59岁人口的样本，本文评估了从事生产性活动以及各类活动所花费的时间对压力和健康的影响。主要发现是，花费的小时数比活动类型更能预测压力。此外，有酬工作和无酬工作的影响是累加的，而非相乘的。也就是说，人们工作得越多，无论他们在做什么，就越有可能感到有压力。不过，工作时间不规律和非传统家庭模式也与健康状况较差以及压力减轻相关。已婚似乎能缓解无酬工作对压力的影响，但不能缓解有酬工作对压力的影响。对健康的影响类似，但较弱，这反映出工作时长的影响更可能是长期的，而且健康与当前劳动力状况之间可能存在一种内生关系。