Advisor(s)
Mieke Thomeer
Committee Member(s)
Anne Brisendine
Joseph Wolfe
Patricia Drentea
Peter Jones
School
College of Arts and Sciences
Document Type
Dissertation
Department (new version)
Social & Behavioral Sciences
Date of Award
9-9-2024
Abstract
It is well-established that work has a strong association with health and that work is also a key driver of health inequality. However, there is little research that incorporates multiple components of work into one cohesive measure and examines how work patterns unfold over the life course. By incorporating three theoretical frameworks (1) The Sociology of Work and Health, (2) The Life Course, and (3) The Stress Process, and using over 40 years of employment data (collected from 1979-2018) from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (N=3,302), I introduce a comprehensive work measure called “Work Quality”. Then, using work quality and a sequence analysis approach, I identify 5 working history clusters within the sample and test their relationship to midlife health. To understand the sociodemographic differences in cluster membership I use multinomial logistic regression and postestimation to obtain predicted probabilities of membership for each cluster. Findings indicate that men and childfree women are more likely to be in high-quality working history clusters and mothers are more likely to be unemployed or in low-quality working history clusters. Additionally, White respondents are disproportionately represented in high-quality clusters and Black and Hispanic respondents are disproportionately represented in low and moderate-quality clusters. Looking at health outcomes, there was a robust association between working history cluster and midlife health. When compared to the unemployed cluster, all other working history clusters had better midlife health outcomes. Additionally, there were sociodemographic differences in the way that working history clusters impact health. Black individuals, who usually report better mental health than Whites, saw worse mental health and higher depression but only if they were members of the moderate or high-quality cluster. Parental status also acted as a moderator and women without children, who usually report worse mental health than mothers, had better mental health outcomes than mothers, but only when they were members moderate or high-quality working history clusters. This dissertation highlights the need for more comprehensive measures of work when looking at how work may influence health and the importance of incorporating a life course perspective into future work and health research.
ProQuest ID
Recommended Citation
Ross, Clifford James, "Mapping Work Histories And Measuring Work Quality: Differences By Race, Gender, And Motherhood" (2024). All ETDs from UAB. 7603.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/7603
