Abstract
To study mental health as a precedent and an outcome of not being in the preferred job ("locked-in situation"). Longitudinal data from age 16 to 43 were derived from surveys of the Northern Swedish Cohort. Changes in mental health were studied with analyses of variance for repeated measures. Getting out of locked-in situation was associated with improving and getting into locked-in with worsening mental health between age 30 and age 43. The worsening was more pronounced and the improvement less pronounced in white-collar than in blue-collar employees. Poor mental health at age 16 predicted locked-in situation in early middle age. The findings clarify the bidirectional nature of the associations between locked-in situation and poor mental health, as well as the importance of social class in assessing these associations.
Highlights
Changing industrial structures increase individuals’ perceptions of not being in the preferred job, and being ‘locked’ in the current post
Longitudinal analyses revealed that those with poor baseline mental health at age 16 tend to get into a locked-in situation in the early middle age, that getting out of a locked-in situation in is associated with improving and getting into a locked-in situation is associated with worsening mental health, and that the worsening is more pronounced and the improvement less pronounced in white-collar than in blue-collar employees
The study among permanently employed individuals in their early middle age showed, first, that there is a cross-sectional association between locked-in situation and poor mental health; second, that those who reported feeling locked-in at age 30 tended to have poor mental health even before entry into the labour market at age 16; third, that there is a gradient in the level of mental health in relation to the locked-in history during the life course from age 30 to age 43; fourth, that getting out of a locked-in situation is associated with improving and becoming locked-in is associated with worsening mental health; fifth, that these associations are gender-independent; and sixth, that the worsening is more pronounced and the improvement less pronounced in white-collar employees
Summary
Changing industrial structures increase individuals’ perceptions of not being in the preferred job, and being ‘locked’ in the current post. The conventional idea of a working career, largely determined by the occupational status of the childhood family and following a predictable course of transitions, is in discrepancy with the idea of the ‘post-traditional life course’ [1] that seemingly constitutes an endless chain of individual decisions. These macro level trends and associated social atmosphere permeate the more proximal levels around an individual [2, 3, 4], eventually increasing individuals’ perceptions of not being in the preferred status as regards workplace or occupation or both. The present longitudinal study aims to contribute to research on the associations between locked-in status and mental health around the turn of the millennium
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