Psychosocial job characteristics and mental health: Do associations differ by migrant status in an Australian working population sample?

Xiaomin Liu,Anthony D Lamontagne,Lin Li,Lay San Too,Steven J Bowe,Dana Unger

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0242906

Abstract

Migrant workers may experience higher burdens of occupational injury and illness compared to native-born workers, which may be due to the differential exposure to occupational hazards, differential vulnerability to exposure-associated health impacts, or both. This study aims to assess if the relationships between psychosocial job characteristics and mental health vary by migrant status in Australia (differential vulnerability). A total of 8969 persons from wave 14 (2014-2015) of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey were included in the analysis. Psychosocial job characteristics included skill discretion, decision authority and job insecurity. Mental health was assessed via a Mental Health Inventory-5 score (MHI-5), with a higher score indicating better mental health. Migrant status was defined by (i) country of birth (COB), (ii) the combination of COB and English/Non-English dominant language of COB and (iii) the combination of COB and years since arrival in Australia. Data were analysed using linear regression, adjusting for gender, age and educational attainment. Migrant status was analysed as an effect modifier of the relationships between psychosocial job characteristics and mental health. Skill discretion and decision authority were positively associated with the MHI-5 score while job insecurity was negatively associated with the MHI-5 score. We found no statistical evidence of migrant status acting as an effect modifier of the psychosocial job characteristic-MHI-5 relationships. With respect to psychosocial job characteristic-mental health relationships, these results suggest that differential exposure to job stressors is a more important mechanism than differential vulnerability for generating occupational health inequities between migrants and native-born workers in Australia.

Highlights

Occupational health inequities (OHIs) refer to avoidable differences in occupational exposures or work-related health outcomes between different working population groups [1,2]
We found little evidence that the magnitudes of psychosocial job characteristic―mental health relationships differ between migrant workers and Australian-born workers
Graphs generated from linear regressions with the product terms of skill discretion and migrant status and controlled for gender, age and educational attainment

Summary

Introduction

Occupational health inequities (OHIs) refer to avoidable differences in occupational exposures or work-related health outcomes between different working population groups [1,2] Disadvantaged population groups, such as workers with lower socioeconomic status, females and migrant workers, may be more likely to experience OHIs [1,3]. Migrant workers may have a higher vulnerability to adverse occupational exposures due to many disadvantages, such as language difficulty, culture shock, lack of social and family support and lack of access to health care. These may result in migrant workers having higher risks of work-related accidents, injuries, fatalities, physical and mental health problems than native-born workers [6,7]. Migrant workers, in general, are characterised as more likely to experience the excess burden of occupational injury and illness compared to native-born workers, or OHIs [1,3,8]

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