Abstract
A growing literature advocates for using a labor perspective to study sex work. According to this approach, sex work involves many of the costs, benefits, and possibilities for exploitation that are common to many jobs. We add to the field with an examination of job attributes and mental health. Our analysis is comparative and uses data from a panel study of people in sex work and hairstyling. We examined job attributes that may differ across these occupations, such as stigma and customer hostility, as well as those that may be more comparable, such as job insecurity, income, and self-employment. Our analysis used mixed-effects regression and included an array of time-varying and time-invariant variables. Our results showed negative associations between mental health and job insecurity and stigma, for both hairstyling and sex work. We also found two occupation-specific relationships: for sex work, limited discretion to make decisions while at work was negatively related to mental health, whereas for hairstyling, mental health was positively associated with self-employment. Our results highlight the usefulness of an inter-occupational labor perspective for understanding the mental health consequences of being in sex work compared to hairstyling.
Highlights
A growing literature examines prostitution as sex work
Sex work presents several avenues for exploitation and mistreatment from employers, customers, law enforcement, and the general public. Studies suggest that this exploitation and mistreatment may have negative consequences for mental health (Krumrei-Mancuso 2017; Puri et al 2017; Treloar et al 2021; Vanwesenbeeck 2005), but like most other areas in sex work research, these studies typically draw on small samples and focus exclusively on people working in the sex industry
People in sex work were younger on average than those in hairstyling; a greater percentage did not attend high school (47% compared to 15%), and a smaller percentage did not complete their secondary education (34% compared to 59%)
Summary
A growing literature examines prostitution as sex work (see the review in Benoit et al 2019). The exchange of sexual services reflects, in part, the set of economic opportunities available to those who sell, as well as the market forces that contribute to demands for specific activities and workers (Constable 2009; O’Connell Davidson 2014; West and Austin 2002; Zelizer 2005). According to this labor approach, selling sex can be usefully studied as a type of service work comparable to other personal service jobs, those that involve emotional labor, body work, and related activities (Sullivan 2010). Studies suggest that this exploitation and mistreatment may have negative consequences for mental health (Krumrei-Mancuso 2017; Puri et al 2017; Treloar et al 2021; Vanwesenbeeck 2005), but like most other areas in sex work research, these studies typically draw on small samples and focus exclusively on people working in the sex industry
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