Critical employment histories, work stress and health functioning: the CONSTANCES study

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

With an increase of non-standard job arrangements in advanced societies static theoretical models of a health-adverse stressful work environment (e.g. "Effort-Reward Imbalance" (ERI)) need to be supplemented by an approach that addresses critical employment histories preceding or co-occurring with current stressful work. This project is one of the first to combine these two lines of sociological research, with a special focus on their association with health functioning. Using data from a large new cohort study, CONSTANCES, we analyse associations of critical employment histories and current stressful work (in terms of ERI) with a set of indicators of health functioning. As a core aim, we test the hypothesis that the interaction of critical employment histories with currently stressful work is associated with relatively lowest levels of all indicators of health functioning. The CONSTANCES study consists of a nationally representative sample of middle-aged employed men and women in France and contains detailed retrospective data on individual work histories. As an innovative aspect of the project, data will be analysed in the frame of a theory-based typology of critical employment histories applying sequence analysis and regression modelling. Results are expected to define entry points for preventive measures of occupational health among groups of vulnerable employees exposed to threatening non-standard job arrangements.