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Title: Men's Work Pathways and Physical and Mental Health at Midlife
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Frech, Adrianne
Damaske, Sarah
Men's Work Pathways and Physical and Mental Health at Midlife
Presented: Seattle WA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2016
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Health, Mental/Psychological; Health/Health Status/SF-12 Scale; Labor Force Participation; Life Course; Part-Time Work; Work Hours/Schedule; Work, Atypical

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, this paper makes two significant contributions to the study of the relationship between men's work and their health at middle age. First, this paper provides the first, to our knowledge, examination of men's longitudinal work pathways using national data and prospective work histories and demonstrates substantial variation in men's work patterns across the life course. We find that the majority of men (just under 80%) work at least 40 hours a week steadily over their twenties, thirties, and early forties. Notably, 20% of men do not follow this standard pattern, suggesting that men's longitudinal workforce participation is much more diverse than is often acknowledged. Second, we find that men's longitudinal work pathways are related to their health at middle age with men who following declining part-time and declining full-time positions experiencing poorer physical and mental health at middle age, although selection into work pathways and characteristics at age 40 account for some of these differences. Our findings suggests that the achievement of steady full-time work may provide long-term health benefits and that access to such stable employment is heavily stratified.
Bibliography Citation
Frech, Adrianne and Sarah Damaske. "Men's Work Pathways and Physical and Mental Health at Midlife." Presented: Seattle WA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2016.