Profiles of Decent Work and Precarious Work: Exploring Macro-Level Predictors and Mental Health Outcomes

Abstract

Using a person-centered approach, this study explored the interrelationship between decent work and precarious work via a latent profile analysis (LPA). This investigation sought to replicate the latent profiles from Blustein and colleagues (2020) and extend the results by examining the role of individual lifetime experiences of macro-level factors (economic constraints and marginalization) as predictors and selected mental health indices (depression and anxiety) as outcomes of profile membership. Using a sample of 422 working adults in the U.S., the findings of the LPA yielded four profiles (indecent-precarious, low healthcare-low rights, highly decent, and vulnerability dominant), replicating four out of the five of the profiles identified in Blustein et al. Informed by psychology of working theory (PWT) and precarity theory, we assessed a structural model of the aforementioned predictors and outcomes in relation to profile membership. Consistent with theoretical expectations, economic constraints and marginalization positively predicted profiles that reflected greater instability and precarity. In addition, the profiles that reflected greater instability and precarity predicted both depression and anxiety. Implications for theory, counseling practice, public policy, and new directions in research are presented.