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Existing research has documented various determinants of mental health related to individuals' social connections, but less is known about the role of the structural features of interpersonal networks. This is especially true in the case of bridging , which refers to ties to people who are otherwise disconnected from each other. By intersecting theories of social networks and gerontology, this study employs within- and between-person analysis with data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) to examine the association between social network bridging and depression in later life. The study finds that bridging, particularly between kin and non-kin members in the network, is associated with increased depressive symptoms in later life. This association is contingent on social support and strain respondents experienced, and it exhibits variations within individuals over time, especially among older adults in the youngest age cohort (57–64 years old included in NSHAP in 2005). In closing, the paper discusses the extent to which heterogeneous network structures may be one mechanism that shapes mental health trajectories in the context of later life-course experiences. • The paper discusses how bridging disparate network members produces strain that elevates depression risks in later life. • Older adults' bridging potential in personal networks is classified into three distinct types. • The association between bridging and elevated depressive symptoms is unique to bridging unconnected kin and non-kin. • The effect of bridging is more so for the youngest age cohort than older cohorts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first Transplant Games took place in 1978 in Portsmouth, England. Since then, numerous Olympic-style sporting 'Games' have been established, each aiming to increase public awareness of organ donation, demonstrate the benefits of transplantation, and encourage patient fitness. Despite this, there is limited research exploring the psycho-social and health impacts of the Games. Drawing on qualitative research conducted at the 2022 British Transplant Games and the 2022 European Transplant and Dialysis Games, this paper explores the Games through a therapeutic landscapes framework, a concept that examines the ways in which environments contribute to health and wellbeing. Building upon work that acknowledges the relational and contingent nature of health-in-place, I argue that the Games are a therapeutic landscape of social relations for transplant recipients in three ways: providing a landscape of belonging , a landscape of hope , and a landscape of motivation. Through this therapeutic landscapes perspective, the Transplant Games are presented as a peer-to-peer clinic – a care space where individuals are more actively involved in their health on a reciprocal level than in the traditional hospital clinic. In turn, this paper emphasises the crucial role of affective peer support in producing health-promoting environments. This research seeks to make a practical contribution to the wider transplant community by promoting the Games as an environment which may positively contribute to both physical and mental wellbeing. • The Transplant Games function as a therapeutic landscape for organ recipients. • They provide a peer-to-peer clinic where participants are active in their health. • The Games provide a landscape of belonging, acceptance, understanding and family. • In showing you can still lead a healthy life, the Games become a landscape of hope. • As a landscape of motivation, the Games improve both physical and mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using cross-sectional data from a representative sample of the French population (the 2008 Disability Health survey), this paper examines whether the SF-6D, a widely used preference-based measure of health-related quality of life in economic evaluations, fully captures the variation in subjective well-being (SWB) due to chronic illnesses. We conduct a mediation analysis to disentangle the direct and indirect, through the SF-6D, effects of various chronic conditions on SWB (happiness). Our results show that the SF-6D reflects changes in happiness due to most illnesses except mental illness. Changes in SWB mediated by the SF-6D account for 74% of the total effect. The variation unexplained by the SF-6D is significant and increases substantially in the presence of multimorbidity when a chronic illness is combined with anxiety or depression. Overall, our results suggest that the SF-6D incompletely captures the subjective experience of chronically ill patients, especially those with comorbid conditions. • 74% of the effect of chronic illness on happiness is captured by the SF-6D. • The SF-6D does not fully capture the effect of mental illness on happiness. • The effect not captured by the SF-6D increases significantly with multimorbidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how distinctions between 'intended' and 'side' effects are troubled in personal narratives of taking psychotropic medications. Grounded in interviews with 29 participants diagnosed with mental illness in Victoria, Australia between February and December 2014, we consider how people interpret pharmaceutical compounds beyond their desired or intended effects, and how such effects shape and transform subjectivity and their relationship with their bodies. This paper contributes to recent discussions of mental illness and medication effects, informed by feminist science studies. It emphasises the co-constitution of social, affective and material relations in the context of 'taking' psychotropic medication. This paper discusses three key themes as important to the phenomenology of the nexus of illness and psychotropic medication: movement, ambivalence, and sociality. Our analysis demonstrates how psychotropic drugs are productive of subjectivity through their promises and potential, their unexpected harms and the institutions from which they are inseparable. • Analyses accounts of mental illness using feminist science and technology studies. • Focus on experiences of taking psychotropic drugs and impact on subjectivity. • Moves beyond distinctions between 'therapeutic' and 'side' effects of drugs. • Unique contribution to understandings of experiences of taking psychotropic drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Advocacy for people using health and social care services is widely promoted but its theoretical foundation is under-developed and its impact poorly conceptualised. This paper explores the liberatory potential of independent advocacy, using Fricker's concept of 'epistemic injustice' as a framework. People experiencing mental distress are particularly vulnerable to epistemic injustices as a consequence of deeply embedded social stigma resulting in a priori assumptions of irrationality and unreliability such that their knowledge is often discounted or downgraded. The mental health service user/survivor movement is at the forefront of validating personal experience and narrative to secure a different ontological and epistemological basis for mental distress. A foundational strand of this is advocacy to enable people to give voice to their experience. The case of independent mental health advocacy (IMHA) services under mental health legislation in England, provides an opportunity to critically examine whether advocacy can promote epistemic justice as a result of the legally sanctioned encounter between clinical assessment and subjective experience, pivoting on judgements about risk. This paper draws on empirical data from a national evaluation of IMHA services, which included 90 individual interviews with people subject to detention and three focus groups with mental health service users. Fricker's concept of epistemic injustice is used as a lens to investigate how this type of advocacy might mitigate forms of epistemic injustice, and thereby promote greater social justice in mental health. The concept of epistemic injustice provides a valuable theoretical basis for understanding the worth of advocacy in addressing testimonial injustice as well as its relative weakness in overcoming hermeneutical injustice. The challenge of independent advocacy to the dominant discourse within mental health is considered and questions raised about the place of advocacy in modern democratic mental health systems. Highlights • Analyses service user accounts of independent mental health advocacy (IMHA). • The concept of 'epistemic injustice' is used to identify if IMHA promotes equality. • The epistemic agency of those detained under MH legislation is compromised. • IMHA promotes testimonial justice but has limited impact on hermeneutic injustice. • Epistemic injustice is helpful in advancing more democratic mental health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some recent European research claims that immigrants settle in urban areas with low scores on level-of-living conditions and a high prevalence of health-risk factors, and that these settlement patterns adversely affect their health. Other studies question the association between immigrant segregation and area deprivation on one hand, and negative health outcomes on the other hand, and identify possible beneficial effects of segregation, specifically the ethnic density effect . This paper aims to explore the possible ethnic density effect among refugees, a sub-population that often appears relatively vulnerable compared with immigrants in general. The data comprise 30 871 individuals, aged 20–69, with an (post-1989) officially registered refugee status from six major countries, including Vietnam, Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Sri Lanka and Bosnia. Two outcomes are analysed, covering the 2008–2011 period – the probability of being admitted at least once to a mental health institution and the number of bed days during that period. The results show that all immigrant clusters have relatively high concentrations of negative level-of-living conditions. Despite this finding, refugees living in clusters tend to have less use of mental healthcare services. The results suggest that for most refugee groups, living in clusters has positive health outcomes. Many countries use settlement policies to direct the inflow of refugees away from immigrant-dense areas. Norway's settlement policy is no exception, aiming at a geographic dispersal of refugees to avoid the emergence of socially segregated urban ethnic communities. This paper discusses the relevance of such a policy for refugees' overall integration and level-of-living conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly 100 years ago, the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell warned of the social dangers of widespread envy. One view of modern society is that it is systematically developing a set of institutions -- such as social media and new forms of advertising -- that make people feel inadequate and envious of others. If so, how might that be influencing the psychological health of our citizens? This paper reports the first large-scale longitudinal research into envy and its possible repercussions. The paper studies 18,000 randomly selected individuals over the years 2005, 2009, and 2013. Using measures of SF-36 mental health and psychological well-being, four main conclusions emerge. First, the young are especially susceptible. Levels of envy fall as people grow older. This longitudinal finding is consistent with a cross-sectional pattern noted recently by Nicole E. Henniger and Christine R. Harris, and with the theory of socioemotional regulation suggested by scholars such as Laura L. Carstensen. Second, using fixed-effects equations and prospective analysis, the analysis reveals that envy today is a powerful predictor of worse SF-36 mental health and well-being in the future. A change from the lowest to the highest level of envy, for example, is associated with a worsening of SF-36 mental health by approximately half a standard deviation (p < .001). Third, no evidence is found for the idea that envy acts as a useful motivator. Greater envy is associated with slower -- not higher -- growth of psychological well-being in the future. Nor is envy a predictor of later economic success. Fourth, the longitudinal decline of envy leaves unaltered a U-shaped age pattern of well-being from age 20 to age 70. These results are consistent with the idea that society should be concerned about institutions that stimulate large-scale envy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gentrification, growing income inequality, urban development, and the affordable housing crisis necessitate understanding the impact of the concern of displacement on health — prior to or even in the absence of a displacement event. In this paper, I use the term "exclusionary displacement pressure" to unify the literature on exclusionary displacement and displacement pressure, highlighting the disproportionate and inequitable impacts of displacement pressure among communities of color. Through following 35 residents over 2.5-years (2019–2022) in one predominantly low-income Hispanic/Latinx immigrant neighborhood in Denver, Colorado, I examine how exclusionary displacement pressure shapes their health and wellbeing over time. Through paying attention to how participants' lived experience is shaped by structural vulnerability (e.g. lack of documentation status, inadequate work, limited access to safety net systems), I identify how exclusionary displacement pressure is constantly internalized and responded to as a unique embodied health experience, wearing on individuals over time and reproducing population health inequities. The framework of embodied health experiences captures the wide range of health-related impacts, from diagnosable health conditions to idioms of distress, using participant's own language of suffering to express how they were feeling , battling , and enduring the pressure. Theorizing on structural vulnerability within specific subpopulations with intersecting identities, such as low-income immigrant Hispanic/Latinx communities, provides a bottom-up refinement to existing theories of embodied health. Understanding the place-health experiences of individuals in changing neighborhoods over time is also critically important to define time points at which context-specific supports and interventions are appropriate. • Gentrification impacts health through exclusionary displacement pressure. • Embodied health experiences highlight residents' structural vulnerability. • Stabilizing interventions are needed in advance of physical displacement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the UK mental health and associated NHS services face considerable challenges. This paper aims to form an understanding both of the complexity of context in which services operate and the means by which services have sought to meet these challenges. Systemic principles as have been applied to public service organisations with reference to interpersonal relations, the wider social culture and its manifestation in service provision. The analysis suggests that the wider culture has shaped service demand and the approaches adopted by services resulting in a number of unintended consequences, reinforcing loops, increased workload demands and the limited value of services. The systemic modelling of this situation provides a necessary overview prior to future policy development. The paper concludes that mental health and attendant services requires a systemic understanding and a whole system approach to reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the experiences of adolescents from mixed migratory status families affected by deportation. We analyze the impacts on their mental and emotional health when they are separated from one parent in the United States, forcibly displaced with another to Oaxaca, and experience the consequences of their deportation in Mexico. We use a qualitative and ethnographic methodology. This paper focuses on data from semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 15 parents who had been deported from the United States and 53 adolescents who moved with them to Mexico. The data was collected between 2018 and 2020. The main findings show the existence of emotions that are sustained in the transnational flow and acquire new nuances upon return. They also show the emergence of new conditions related to family separation, all of which have an impact on the adolescents' well-being and on important areas of their lives, such as education. The research contributes to knowledge in two main ways: 1) it addresses the impacts of parental deportation on the well-being of adolescents in mixed-status families, which have typically focused on children; 2) it studies how parental deportation affects the mental and emotional health of adolescents de facto deported to Mexico, a field still little studied. • De facto deportation has mental health consequences among adolescents. • The forced nature of de facto deportation produces helplessness, aggression and anger. • The code of silence associated with deportation generates fear, stress, anxiety. • Ambiguous loss is accentuated at important moments in academic and developmental life. • Family separation and de facto deportation affect school performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scholars assert that Indigenous peoples across the globe suffer a disproportionate burden of mental illness. Research indicates that colonialism and its associated processes are important determinants of Indigenous peoples’ health internationally. In Canada, despite an abundance of health research documenting inequalities in morbidity and mortality rates for Indigenous peoples, relatively little research has focused on mental health. This paper provides a critical scoping review of the literature related to Indigenous mental health in Canada. We searched eleven databases and two Indigenous health-focused journals for research related to mental health, Indigenous peoples, and Canada, for the years 2006–2016. Over two hundred papers are included in the review and coded according to research theme, population group, and geography. Results demonstrate that the literature is overwhelmingly concerned with issues related to colonialism in mental health services and the prevalence and causes of mental illness among Indigenous peoples in Canada, but with several significant gaps. Mental health research related to Indigenous peoples in Canada overemphasizes suicide and problematic substance use; a more critical use of the concepts of colonialism and historical trauma is advised; and several population groups are underrepresented in research, including Métis peoples and urban or off-reserve Indigenous peoples. The findings are useful in an international context by providing a starting point for discussions, dialogue, and further study regarding mental health research for Indigenous peoples around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socioeconomic status (SES) is a robust correlate of mental health, and emerging research indicates that life course trajectories of SES (i.e., social mobility) may be more predictive for health outcomes than point-in-time SES assessments. This paper presents five primary meta-analyses to determine how mental health differs between social mobility groups. We conducted a systematic review of PsycINFO, Web of Science, and PubMed for studies of social mobility and mental health. We used random-effects multilevel meta-analyses to compare mental health problems between individuals who experienced upward mobility, downward mobility, stable high SES, and stable low SES. We included data from 21 studies and 157,763 unique participants yielding 105 effect sizes. Upwardly mobile participants experienced more mental health problems than stable high SES participants (d = 0.11), fewer mental health problems than stable low SES participants (d = −0.24), and fewer mental health problems than downwardly mobile participants (d = −0.17). Downwardly mobile individuals experienced more mental health problems than stable high SES participants (d = 0.26) and fewer mental health problems than stable low SES participants (d = −0.10). Subgroup analyses revealed that the magnitude of effects did not differ by continent of study, type of generational mobility (intergenerational vs. intragenerational), or SES indicator. Meta-regressions with continuous moderators (age, gender, race, study quality) were also non-significant. Taken together, these results indicate that both upwardly and downwardly mobile individuals experience more mental health problems than those who are persistently advantaged, and they both experience fewer mental health problems than those who are persistently disadvantaged. Our findings suggest that while current SES has a stronger association with adult mental health than childhood SES, it is important to also consider the impact of early life and prior generation SES to account for lingering effects of early disadvantage. • Social mobility has small but significant effects on subsequent mental health. • The socially mobile have more mental health problems than the always-advantaged. • The socially mobile have fewer mental health problems than the always-disadvantaged. • Current social class influences mental health more than early life social class. • Early life social class still has some lingering consequences for mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the impact of economic insecurity on the mental health of Australian adults. Taking microdata from the 2001–2011 HILDA panel survey, we develop a conceptually diverse set of insecurity measures and explore their relationships with the SF-36 mental health index. By using fixed effects models that control for unobservable heterogeneity we produce estimates that correct for endogeneity more thoroughly than previous works. Our results show that exposure to economic risks has small but consistently detrimental mental health effects. The main contribution of the paper however comes from the breadth of risks that are found to be harmful. Job insecurity, financial dissatisfaction, reductions and volatility in income, an inability to meet standard expenditures and a lack of access to emergency funds all adversely affect health. This suggests that the common element of economic insecurity (rather than idiosyncratic phenomena associated with any specific risk) is likely to be hazardous. Our preferred estimates indicate that a standard deviation shock to economic insecurity lowers an individual's mental health score by about 1.4 percentage points. If applied uniformly across the Australian population such a shock would increase the morbidity rate of mental disorders by about 1.7%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing number of studies have addressed the determinants of suicide. Social capital is a key factor in preventing suicide. However, little is known about the experience of suicide ideation using subjective values. From the viewpoint of suicide prevention, it is worth examining how people think of suicide. This paper attempts to examine the effect of social capital on suicide ideation. Furthermore, the paper compares the effect of social capital between urban and non-urban areas. In this paper, urban areas are equivalent to mega-cities with populations over one million. Non-urban areas are cities with populations of less than one million, towns and villages. Individual-level data from the Japanese General Social Surveys (JGSSs) are used. The survey, which was conducted in 2006, provides information about the subjective value of suicide ideation. The survey was answered by 1413 subjects with a mean age of 54.5. Of the subjects, 49% were male. Social trust is used to measure the degree of social capital, and the outcome of interest is suicide ideation within the past 5 years. After controlling for various factors, the major findings are that both individual-level social trust and social trust accumulated in one's residential administrative district reduce the probability that one will consider suicide. After dividing the sample into urban and non-urban residents, particularized trust plays a role in deterring suicide ideation in urban areas, while generalized trust plays a role in deterring suicide ideation in non-urban areas. The effect of each type of trust depends on its scarcity in residential areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paid maternity leave has become a standard benefit in many countries throughout the world. Although maternal health has been central to the rationale for paid maternity leave, no review has specifically examined the effect of paid maternity leave on maternal health. The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic review of studies that examine the association between paid maternity leave and maternal health. We conducted a comprehensive search of electronic databases (Medline, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Sociological Abstracts) and Google Scholar. We searched websites of relevant organisations, reference lists of key papers and journals, and citation indices for additional studies including those not in refereed journals. There were no language restrictions. Studies were included if they compared paid maternity leave versus no paid maternity leave, or different lengths of paid leave. Data were extracted and an assessment of bias was performed independently by authors. Seven studies were identified, with participants from Australia, Sweden, Norway, USA, Canada, and Lebanon. All studies used quantitative methodologies, including cohort, cross-sectional, and repeated cross-sectional designs. Outcomes included mental health and wellbeing, general health, physical wellbeing, and intimate partner violence. The four studies that examined leave at an individual level showed evidence of maternal health benefits, whereas the three studies conducting policy-level comparisons reported either no association or evidence of a negative association. The synthesis of the results suggested that paid maternity leave provided maternal health benefits, although this varied depending on the length of leave. This has important implications for public health and social policy. However, all studies were subject to confounding bias and many to reverse causation. Given the small number of studies and the methodological limitations of the evidence, longitudinal studies are needed to further clarify the effects of paid maternity leave on the health of mothers in paid employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is ongoing debate regarding the shape of life-course trajectories in mental health. Many argue the relationship is U-shaped, with mental health declining with age to mid-life, then improving. However, I argue that these models are beset by the age–period–cohort (APC) identification problem, whereby age, cohort and year of measurement are exactly collinear and their effects cannot be meaningfully separated. This means an apparent life-course effect could be explained by cohorts. This paper critiques two sets of literature: the substantive literature regarding life-course trajectories in mental health, and the methodological literature that claims erroneously to have ‘solved’ the APC identification problem statistically (e.g. using Yang and Land's Hierarchical APC–HAPC-model). I then use a variant of the HAPC model, making strong but justified assumptions that allow the modelling of life-course trajectories in mental health (measured by the General Health Questionnaire) net of any cohort effects, using data from the British Household Panel Survey, 1991–2008. The model additionally employs a complex multilevel structure that allows the relative importance of spatial (households, local authority districts) and temporal (periods, cohorts) levels to be assessed. Mental health is found to increase throughout the life-course; this slows at mid-life before worsening again into old age, but there is no evidence of a U-shape – I argue that such findings result from confounding with cohort processes (whereby more recent cohorts have generally worse mental health). Other covariates were also evaluated; income, smoking, education, social class, urbanity, ethnicity, gender and marriage were all related to mental health, with the latter two in particular affecting life-course and cohort trajectories. The paper shows the importance of understanding APC in life-course research generally, and mental health research in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper reports research exploring how trends in local labour market conditions during the period 2007–2011 (early stages of the 'great recession') relate to reported mental illness for individuals. It contributes to research on spatio-temporal variation in the wider determinants of health, exploring how the lifecourse of places relates to socio-geographical inequalities in health outcomes for individuals. This study also contributes to the renewed research focus on the links between labour market trends and population health, prompted by the recent global economic recession. We report research using the Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS), a 5.3% representative sample of the Scottish population, derived from census data (https://sls.lscs.ac.uk/). In Scotland, (2011) census data include self-reported mental health. SLS data were combined with non-disclosive information from other sources, including spatio-temporal trends in labour market conditions (calculated using trajectory modelling) in the 32 local authority areas in Scotland. We show that, for groups of local authorities in Scotland over the period 2007–2011, trends in employment varied. These geographically variable trends in employment rates were associated with inequalities in self-reported mental health across the country, after controlling for a number of other individual and neighbourhood risk factors. For residents of regions that had experienced relatively high and stable levels of employment the odds ratio for reporting a mental illness was significantly lower than for the 'reference group', living in areas with persistently low employment rates. In areas where employment declined markedly from higher levels, the odds ratio was similar to the reference group. The findings emphasise how changes in local economic conditions may influence people's health and wellbeing independently of their own employment status. We conclude that, during the recent recession, the economic life course of places across Scotland has been associated with individual mental health outcomes. Highlights • The Scottish Longitudinal Study was used to study mental illness reported in 2011. • The analysis of individuals controlled for personal and local neighbourhood variables. • Local Authority employment trend 2007–11 was associated with reported mental health. • Economic lifecourses of places relate to inequalities in mental health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we reflect on discussions with people of advanced age in Āotearoa New Zealand, and draw on theoretical frameworks of resilience and place in old age, to explore insights about the ways older people maintain quality of life and health. Twenty community-dwelling people of advanced age (85+) were recruited in 2015–16 from a large multidisciplinary longitudinal study of advanced age. These twenty participated in interviews about health in advanced age, impact of illnesses, interactions with clinicians, access to information, support for managing health, and perceptions of primary care, medications, and other forms of assistance. We use a positioning theory framework drawing on thematic and narrative analysis to understand the dynamic ways people in advanced age position themselves and the ways they age well through speech acts and storylines. People in advanced age saw themselves as challenged, rather than threatened, by adversities, and positioned themselves as able to draw on a lifetime of experience and resourcefulness and collaborations with supporters to deal with challenges. Key strategies include downplaying illness and resisting biomedical discourses of complexity, positioning embodied selves as having agency, and creative adaptation in the face of loss. People in advanced age exhibit resilience, maintaining wellbeing, autonomy and good physical and mental quality of life even while living with challenges such as functional decline and multi-morbidities. These findings have significance for supporters of older people, emphasising the need to move away from a narrow focus on problems to working together WITH people in advanced age to offer a more holistic approach that encourages and enhances adaptation and flexibility, rather than rigid and counterproductive coping patterns. • Older people position themselves as active co-managers in their support arrangements. • Framing problems as challenges not threats facilitates older people's resourcefulness. • People in old age adapt resiliently to health conditions as part of living and ageing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper describes who is most likely to experience household employment insecurity and housing affordability stress – double precarity – and estimates the degree to which housing affordability mediates the effect of employment insecurity on mental health. We use a cohort of 24,201 participants in 2016 Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey (6.2 repeated measures on average). We estimate the likelihood of onset of household employment insecurity, housing affordability stress and change in housing costs using longitudinal regression analyses for socio-demographic groups. We assess mediation by estimating how much exposure variable coefficients attenuate with inclusion of a mediator in fixed effects regression models. We also apply causal mediation methods to fixed-effects regression models to better account for exposure-mediator interaction and meet strict model assumptions. If people's households become insecurely employed, there are five times greater odds of them also experiencing housing affordability stress (OR 4.99 95%CI 4.21–5.90). Key cohorts within the population are shown to be especially vulnerable to double precarity – notably single parents (OR 2.91, 95%CI 1.94–4.35) and people who live alone (OR 4.42, 95% CI 3.03–6.45) (compared to couples), and people who are recently separated or divorced (OR 2.59, 95%CI 1.81–3.70). Mediation analysis confirms that household employment insecurity has a small, negative effect on mental health (Beta −0.24, 95%CI -0.38-0.11 on a 1 to 100-point scale with 10-point standard deviation). Estimates from casual mediation analyses suggest housing affordability accounts for 20% of the total effect; likely concentrated in the lowest and highest strata of income. Employment and housing insecurity represent a form of double precarity for people in households with a single income. When we consider the impact on mental health, we find evidence of a causal relationship between insecure employment onset and mental health, around one fifth of which is mediated by changing housing cost and onset of affordability stress. Highlights • Insecurely employed households are five times as likely to have unaffordable housing. • Lone person and lone parent households are more susceptible to double precarity. • Housing costs mediate the impact of insecure employment on mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The National Health Service in the UK is set up under the principle of "equal access for equal need", where those with identical medical needs should be given equal priority in receiving health care. However, non-medical needs may also be relevant in health care decision-making. This paper considers how members of the general public value access to a health service given equal medical needs, where some service users have additional non-medical needs. There are three primary research questions. First, are public preferences regarding access to a health care service symmetric and inequality averse? Second, are public preferences asymmetric across different needs groups? And third, which individual characteristics of respondents are predictive of different public preferences in this domain? An online survey of the UK general public was conducted in January 2017 using binary choice questions. The hypothetical scenarios involved allocating extra resources from a social perspective, to reduce the waiting time to access a mental health service for the unemployed, for the employed, or for both groups. Based on a valid sample of 662 respondents, the study found that the three main preference categories were: inequality averse and symmetric, inequality averse and asymmetric in favour of the unemployed, and inequality seeking and asymmetric in favour of the unemployed, with the first group being the largest. Respondents' current labour market status was found to explain their preferences so that those who were currently job-seeking were more likely to demonstrate preferences that favoured the unemployed, and those who were currently unemployed were less likely to demonstrate asymmetric preferences that favoured the employed. The implications from these findings are that health policies in the UK that support equal access for equal medical need are likely to be received most favourably, yet a non-trivial minority may support policies favouring those with other, non-medical needs. Highlights • We elicit public preferences on equality of access to a mental health care service. • Preferences are elicited based on equal medical but unequal employment needs. • The modal preference observed was equal access for equal medical need. • Where preferences deviated from symmetry, support was greater for the unemployed. • Current labour market status significantly influenced stated preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Father's permanent departure from the household in childhood has the potential to affect child mental health. The event is non-random, and a major limitation in most previous studies is lack of adequate control for unobserved confounders. Using five waves of data spanning ages 3 to 14 from the Millennium Cohort Study, a UK-wide nationally representative longitudinal study, this paper uses fixed effect models to examine the effect of paternal absence on children's mental health (i.e. externalising and internalising problems) in a sample of 6245 children. Heterogeneity of effects are examined by gender and maternal education. A novel aspect is to examine how the timing of departure matters, and to assess whether there are developmental periods that are especially sensitive to paternal departure, and whether effects are temporary or enduring. We find that paternal departure has a negative effect on child mental health, particularly on internalising symptoms. Striking gender differences emerge in examining effects by timing and duration. There are no short-term effects of departure in early childhood, and only weak evidence of females showing an increase in internalising symptoms in the medium-term. Paternal departure in later childhood, on the other hand, is associated with an increase in internalising problems in both males and females, and increased externalising symptoms for males only. We do not find maternal education to be a protective factor. Highlights • Timing of father's departure matters for children's mental health. • Departure in mid-childhood more detrimental to mental health than earlier on. • It increases internalising (boys and girls) and externalising (boys) problems. • High maternal education not a buffer for child mental health after father departure. • Departure in early childhood associated with better maternal mental health later on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper focuses on the long-term impacts of attending a high school with inadequate sports facilities. We use prospective data from the British National Child Development Study, a continuing panel of a cohort of 17,634 children born in Great Britain during a single week of March 1958. Our empirical approach exploits the educational system they were exposed to: children were sorted by educational ability at age 11, but conditional on educational ability, attended their closest school. This produces quasi-random variation in the quality of the school sports facilities across respondents. We use this variation between cohort members residing within the same local authority area, and focus on outcome measures of physical activity, health, health-related lifestyle activities, and socioeconomic status, collected at ages between 33 and 50 years. We control for any potential links between the inadequacy of sports facilities and inadequacy of other facility types, and test that allocation to school type is random with respect to pre-high school observables. We find that attending a school with inadequate sports facilities led to a statistically significant, modest decrease in the likelihood of physical activity participation during adulthood. In contrast, we find no evidence that inadequate sports facilities worsened adulthood measures of physical and mental health, lifestyle or socioeconomic status. Highlights • Inadequate school sports facilities leads to a decrease in adulthood exercise. • The reduction in exercise is modest. • Inadequate school sports facilities has no long-term health effects. • Inadequate school sports facilities has no long-term socioeconomic effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the association between homelessness and mental health episodes focusing on episodes of depression, anxiety and other conditions (bipolar affective disorder, schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress disorder). Using panel data from the Australian Journeys Home survey, we investigate the extent to which this association is due to common determinants of homelessness and mental health episodes, or whether there is a causal link between them. The results indicate that episodes of depression increase the probability that a person becomes homeless. This is not the case for other mental health conditions. We find no evidence that becoming homeless causes a person to have a mental health episode. Instead, respondents are less likely to be diagnosed with depression in the 6 months after being precariously housed. Overall, our results indicate that, except for depression, the links between mental health episodes and homelessness are complex and are mostly unlikely to be causal. Using information on service usage, we find suggestive evidence that people use mental health services when they need to but that more coordination with housing services is required to protect them from becoming precariously housed. • This paper uses panel data from the Australian Journeys Home survey. • Episodes of depression increase the probability to become precariously housed. • But they do not increase the probability of literal homelessness. • Episodes of homelessness are not causally linked to other mental health conditions. • More coordination needed between services to protect the depressed from homelessness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws together work on therapeutic assemblages, geographic assemblages, and therapeutic landscapes to develop the concept of "multi-sited therapeutic assemblages." Assemblage theory has been productively used in health research since it achieved prominence in the social sciences two decades ago. One facet that, however, remains as yet under-developed in the literature on "therapeutic assemblages" (as well as their close kin, "health assemblages," "ill-health assemblages," "care assemblages," etc.) is that of the multi-sited therapeutic assemblage. This paper demonstrates the significance of the multi-locality of therapeutic assemblages by mapping the mental health support activities of young New Zealanders. Grounded theory analysis of interviews with 150 New Zealand youth (which took place from 2015 to 2020) about their online and offline engagements in mental health support highlights the importance of the emplacement of therapeutic practices whilst also foregrounding their multi-sitedness. It enables opportunities to examine how therapeutically-meaningful places can be constituted both as independent sites and simultaneously re-made through their fluid, dynamic and temporal relations with one another. Through this analytic perspective, care and other elements of the therapeutic come to be understood as neither anchored to a single site nor constituted through the inter-relation of home and clinic, but defined via a shifting, dynamic, and multi-directional assemblage of multiple places, people, and resources. This has noteworthy implications for how we envisage relationships between a wide variety of therapeutic digital and real-life sites, as well as for examining scholarly and practical understandings of the emplacement of care. • Develops the conceptual framework of multi-sited therapeutic assemblages. • Highlights the multi-spatial dimension of online/offline therapeutic activity. • Expands scholarly approaches to therapeutic landscapes beyond singular sites. • Examines youths' multi-sited, multi-directional engagement in mental health support. • Finds multi-directional support can coincide with de-centring of professional care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether low income and subjective financial strain are associated with mental health, as well as whether mastery weakens this association. We analyze three waves of a large sample of Canadians and utilize random and fixed effects regression strategies to assess bias introduced by unobserved time-stable confounders. In random effects models, both low income and subjective financial strain are associated with distress and anger. In fixed effects models that control for all time-stable confounders, the effect of low income is reduced to non-significance for both outcomes. The effect of subjective strain is also reduced in fixed effects models, but remained statistically significant. Sobel tests indicated that the effect of subjective strain on mental health is transmitted through mastery, but this indirect path is modest in magnitude. When interactions are tested, mastery weakens the association between subjective strain and distress, and this effect is robust to the influence of time-stable controls, but mastery does not buffer the subjective strain-anger relationship in either random or fixed-effects models. Finally, moving below the low income threshold increases anger for low mastery individuals, but seems to reduce anger when moving below the low income threshold is coupled with increases in mastery. Collectively, our findings demonstrate the importance of assessing the influence of unobserved time-stable confounders in stress research. Further, discrepancies in the moderating role of mastery reinforce calls for the assessment of multiple outcomes in mental health research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale Previous studies have observed a positive association between automation risk and employment loss. Based on the job insecurity-health risk hypothesis, greater exposure to automation risk could also be negatively associated with health outcomes. Objective The main objective of this paper is to investigate the county-level association between prevalence of workers in jobs exposed to automation risk and general, physical, and mental health outcomes. Methods As a preliminary assessment of the job insecurity-health risk hypothesis (automation risk → job insecurity → poorer health), a structural equation model was used based on individual-level data in the two cross-sectional waves (2012 and 2014) of General Social Survey (GSS). Next, using county-level data from County Health Rankings 2017, American Community Survey (ACS) 2015, and Statistics of US Businesses 2014, Two Stage Least Squares (2SLS) regression models were fitted to predict county-level health outcomes. Results Using the 2012 and 2014 waves of the GSS, employees in occupational classes at higher risk of automation reported more job insecurity, that, in turn, was associated with poorer health. The 2SLS estimates show that a 10% increase in automation risk at county-level is associated with 2.38, 0.8, and 0.6 percentage point lower general, physical, and mental health, respectively. Conclusion Evidence suggests that exposure to automation risk may be negatively associated with health outcomes, plausibly through perceptions of poorer job security. More research is needed on interventions aimed at mitigating negative influence of automation risk on health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The task of studying the impact of social class on physical and mental health involves, among other things, the use of a conceptual toolbox that defines what social class is, establishes how to measure it, and sets criteria that help distinguish it from closely related concepts. One field that has recently witnessed a wealth of theoretical and conceptual research on social class is psychology, but geographers' and sociologists’ attitude of diffidence toward this “positivistic” discipline has prevented them from taking advantage of this body of scholarship. This paper aims to highlight some of the most important developments in the psychological study of social class and social mobility that speak to the long-standing concerns of health geographers and sociologists with how social position, perceptions, social comparisons, and class-based identities impact health and well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the health selection hypothesis, poor mental health and behavioural problems in adolescence limit socioeconomic attainment. But to what extent is health selection driven by prior social causation? This paper quantifies the extent to which health selection – here, restricted or downward intergenerational social class mobility due to poor mental health or behavioural problems – can be attributed to the influence of modifiable childhood risk factors. The UK National Child Development Study provides measures of socioeconomic deprivation and childhood adversities, as well as multiple-informant ratings of adolescents' mental health and behavioural problems, for which confirmatory factor analysis supports a three-factor model. Decomposition analysis is used to robustly assess the extent of attenuation of selection effects when conditioning on the childhood environment. Conduct problems, hyperactivity, and to a lesser extent emotional symptoms at age 16 are associated with individuals' chances of achieving (un)desirable mobility outcomes. When prior childhood risk factors are taken into account, the association of conduct problems with mobility is attenuated by around 50%, indicating a substantial role for confounding and earlier processes of social causation in the generation of this health selection effect. Further analyses indicate that this attenuation is greater for those from the most disadvantaged backgrounds and is mostly driven by the inclusion of indicators of generalised disadvantage such as crowded housing and low income. On the other hand, the effects of emotional symptoms and hyperactivity on mobility outcomes are not significantly accounted for by childhood risk factors. This study adds to the health inequalities literature by interrogating the empirical validity of the usual interpretation of health selection effects as indicating the causal priority of the onset of poor mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is limited evidence on the coping strategies of conflict-affected civilians in low and middle income countries. The aim of this paper is to explore the coping strategies used by women internally displaced within the Republic of Georgia due to the Russo-Georgian war in 2008. We use a five-fold coping typology to examine coping strategies in the accounts of 42 Georgian women residing in internally-displaced persons settlements. Semi-structured interviews were conducted during fieldwork in Georgia from December 2012 to February 2013. Problem solving and support seeking behaviours emerged as the most-commonly-used strategies. The findings suggest interventions fostering sustainable livelihoods and robust social networks are needed to utilise the coping strategies commonly used by internally displaced women in Georgia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many public housing residents suffer from poor mental health and depression, which may be a function of both socioeconomic deprivation and residing in disorderly, unstable, and disadvantaged neighborhoods. While not explicitly targeting mental health, the HOPE VI program may improve public housing residents’ mental health by relocating them from distressed developments and into less-disadvantaged and disorderly neighborhoods. This paper examines post-relocation depressive symptomology among residents relocated from the Boulevard Homes public housing development in Charlotte, NC. Drawing on pre- and post-relocation surveys, as well as interviews with staff and case managers, we examine whether depressive symptomology – measured by the CES-D-10 – is associated with whether tenants relocate to other public housing or to private-market housing through the Housing Choice Voucher program. Further, we investigate whether social support, perceptions of safety, or objective neighborhood measures result in improvements in post-relocation depressive symptomology. We find that depressive symptomology substantially decreased following relocation, and those with higher CES-D-10 scores were more likely to move to other public housing rather than through the voucher program. Interviews with case managers suggest that some residents were fearful of leaving public housing and assuming the responsibilities of a private-market rental unit – e.g., basic maintenance and utility payments. Further, we find that reductions in post-relocation depressive symptomology are associated with greater perceptions of safety, greater social support in their new neighborhoods, and length of tenure at Boulevard Homes. Policy recommendations include expanding community-based mental health services, conducting pre-relocation mental health screenings, and providing additional relocation counseling to those suffering from depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-rated health (SRH) is arguably the most widely used generic health measurement in survey research. However, SRH remains a black box for researchers. In our paper, we want to gain a better understanding of SRH by identifying its determinants, quantifying the contribution of different health domains to explain SRH, and by exploring the moderating role of gender, age groups, and the country of residence. Using data from 61,365 participants of the fifth wave (2013) of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) living in fifteen European countries, we explain SRH via linear regression models. The independent variables are grouped into five health domains: functioning, diseases, pain, mental health, and behavior. Via dominance analysis, we focus on their individual contribution to explaining SRH and compare these contributions across gender, three age groups, and fifteen European countries. Our model explains SRH rather well (R2 =.51 for females/.48 for males) with functioning contributing most to the appraisal (.20/.18). Diseases were the second most relevant health dimension (.14/.16) followed by pain (.08/.07) and mental health (.07/.06). Health behavior (.02/.01) was less relevant for health ratings. This ranking held true for almost all countries with only little variance overall. A comparison of age groups indicated that the contribution of diseases and behavior to SRH decreased over the life-course while the contribution of functioning to R2 increased. Our paper demonstrates that SRH is largely based on diverse health information with functioning and diseases being most important. However, there is still room for idiosyncrasies or even bias. • Self-rated health (SRH) is explained via five dimensions of health information. • Amount of explained variance by dimension is compared by gender, age group, and country. • Functioning and diseases were the most important dimensions. • Only minor differences in importance were found by gender and country. • Importance of diseases/behavior decreased with age, increased for functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how middle aged and older asylum applicants in the UK speak about health in relation to migratory experiences. It proposes biocredibility as a novel theoretical concept, through which the narratives of those migrating to the UK to seek asylum can be analysed. The UK government's hostile environments policies, which aim to make life uncomfortable for irregular migrants in the UK in order to drive down migration, have been criticised on legal, material and moral grounds. This paper adds to this critique. Narrative analysis of semi-structured interviews shows that the majority of the asylum applicants interviewed felt their health was poor and told of the difficulties of life in the UK. Stories of homelessness, poverty and exclusion dominated, underpinned by the erosion of their perceived trustworthiness and credibility through encounters with the Home Office. Particular personal experiences of social, political and economic strife in exile were narrated closely against stories of illness. The concept of biocredibility refers to, and provides a way of understanding, participants' propensity for creating narrative enclaves for pathographies as a discursive mechanism to add credibility to narratives of lived experience. In this way, visceral descriptions of biological suffering can function as a narrative resource. It does this firstly by providing material and social context for adverse health, thus allowing participants to attribute a socio-political cause for their illness. Secondly it interjects experiences of illness into life narratives, thus effectively communicating the significance of such experiences. Finally, it provides narrative evidence of individuals' autobiographical testimony. For discredited and marginalised asylum applicants, biocredibility can be understood to represent a strategy used to re-negotiate credibility and urges a critical consideration of the hostile and austere socio-political context in which it is observed. • In the UK hostile environment policies aim to decrease net migration. • Narrative analysis shows how this impacts asylum seekers' health. • Asylum seekers associate life in the UK with biological dysfunction. • This paper conceptualises this through a novel paradigm: Biocredibility. • Biocredibility describes the narrative biologisation of lived experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current literature confirms the negative consequences of contemporaneous economic insecurity for mental health, but ignores possible implications of repeated insecurity. This paper asks how much a person's history of economic insecurity matters for psychological distress by contrasting the implications of two models. Consistent with the health capital literature, the Healing model suggests psychological distress is a stock variable affected by shocks from life events, with past events having less impact than more recent shocks. Alternatively, the Breaking Point model considers that high levels of distress represent a distinct shift in life state, which occurs if the accumulation of past life stresses exceeds some critical value. Using five cycles of Canadian National Population Health Survey data (2000–2009), we model the impact of past economic insecurity shocks on current psychological distress in a way that can distinguish between these hypotheses. In our sample of 1775 males and 1883 females aged 25 to 64, we find a robust healing effect for one-time economic insecurity shocks. For males, only a recent one-time occurrence of economic insecurity is predictive of higher current psychological distress (0.19 standard deviations). Moreover, working age adults tend to recover from past accumulated experiences of economic insecurity if they were recently economically secure. However, consistent with the Breaking Point hypothesis, males experiencing three or four cycles of recent insecurity are estimated to have a level of current psychological distress that is 0.26–0.29 standard deviations higher than those who were employed and job secure throughout the same time period. We also find, consistent with other literature, distinct gender differences - for working age females, all economic insecurity variables are statistically insignificant at conventional levels. Our results suggest that although Canadians are resilient to one-time insecurity shocks, males most vulnerable to repeated bouts suffer from elevated levels of psychological distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the health effects of the introduction of a near universal paid parental leave (PPL) scheme in Australia, representing a natural social policy experiment. Along with gender equity and workforce engagement, a goal of the scheme (18 weeks leave at the minimum wage rate) was to enhance the health and wellbeing of mothers and babies. Although there is evidence that leave, especially paid leave, can benefit mothers' health post-partum, the potential health benefits of implementing a nationwide scheme have rarely been investigated. The data come from two cross-sectional surveys of mothers (matched on their eligibility for paid parental leave), 2347 mother's surveyed pre-PPL and 3268 post-PPL. We investigated the scheme's health benefits for mothers, and the extent this varied by pre-birth employment conditions and job characteristics. Overall, we observed better mental and physical health among mothers after the introduction of PPL, although the effects were small. Post-PPL mothers on casual (insecure) contracts before birth had significantly better mental health than their pre-PPL counterparts, suggesting that the scheme delivered health benefits to mothers who were relatively disadvantaged. However, mothers on permanent contracts and in managerial or professional occupations also had significantly better mental and physical health in the post-PPL group. These mothers were more likely to combine the Government sponsored leave with additional, paid, employer benefits, enabling a longer paid leave package post-partum. Overall, the study provides evidence that introducing paid maternity leave universally delivers health benefits to mothers. However the modest 18 week PPL provision did little to redress health inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the British Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), an ongoing longitudinal study of a cohort of 18,827 children born in the UK in 2000–2001, we investigate important correlates of mental health issues during childhood. MCS respondents were sampled at birth, at age 9 months, and then when they were 3, 5, 7 and 11 years old. Each sweep contains detailed information on the family's SES, parenting activities, developmental indicators, parental relationship status, and indicators of parental mental health. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the related Rutter scale were used to identify behavioral and emotional problems in children. In this paper, childhood problems are separated into four domains: hyperactivity, emotional symptoms, conduct problems, and peer problems. We focus on two aspects of this relationship at ages 5 and 11–the role of temporary and persistent poverty and the role of temporary and persistent mental health problems of mothers and fathers. At ages 11 and 5, without other controls in the model, persistent and transitory poverty have strong estimated associations with all four domains, with somewhat stronger estimated effects for persistent poverty. After a set of controls are added, we document that both persistent levels of poverty and transitions into poverty are strongly associated with levels of and transitions into childhood mental health problems. Similarly, sustained levels and transitions into mothers' mental health problems are strongly associated with levels and transitions into children's mental health problems. This is much less so for fathers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the United States has been a nation of immigrants since its founding, the massive number of asylum seekers arriving at the US-Mexico Border is a relatively new phenomenon that requires attention and study. This paper describes the lived experience of three asylum seekers, demonstrating how physical and mental health are structured by US policies and politics. The in-depth accounts are informed by participant observation and policy analysis of humanitarian, non-governmental organizations advocating for asylum seekers. We focus on health and geographical trajectories using the triple trauma paradigm that includes trauma in the country of origin, trauma incurred during transit/flight, and the trauma of arrival and relocation/resettlement in the host country. We suggest that a form of necropower, understood as processes exacerbating the potentiality for death, is embedded in the structure of the US asylum apparatus. • Asylum seekers' lived experience reveals stressors undermining physical/mental health • Exacerbation of the potentiality for death is embedded in the US asylum seeking system • Racialized targeting of immigrant bodies by the US asylum apparatus is "by design" • Decisions by specific actors and anonymous cultural patterns promote a politics of death [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research shows mental health is impacted by poor-quality physical and social-environmental conditions. Subsequently state-led redevelopment/regeneration schemes focus on improving the physical environment, to provide better social-environmental conditions, addressing spatial and socioeconomic inequities thus improving residents' health. However, recent research suggests that redevelopment/regeneration schemes often trigger gentrification, resulting in new spatial and socioeconomic inequalities that may worsen health outcomes, including mental health, for long-term neighborhood residents. Using the right to the city and situating this within the framework of accumulation by dispossession and capitalist hegemony, this paper explores the potential mechanisms in which poor mental health outcomes may endure in neighborhoods despite the implementation of redevelopment/regeneration projects. To do so, we explored two neighborhoods in the city of Glasgow — North Glasgow and East End – and conducted a strong qualitative study based on 25 in-depth semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. The results show that postindustrial vacant and derelict land spaces and socioeconomic deprivation in North and East Glasgow are potential mechanisms contributing to the poor mental health of its residents. Where redevelopment/regeneration projects prioritize economic goals, it is often at the expense of social(health) outcomes. Instead, economic investment instigates processes of gentrification, where long-term neighborhood residents are excluded from accessing collective urban life and its (health) benefits. Moreover, these residents are continually excluded from participation in decision-making and are unable to shape the urban environment. In summary, we found a number of potential mechanisms that may contribute to enduring poor mental health outcomes despite the existence of redevelopment/regeneration projects. Projects instead have negative consequences for the determinants of mental health, reinforcing existing inequalities, disempowering original long-term neighborhood residents and only providing the "right" to the unhealthy deprived city. We define this as the impossibility to benefit from material opportunities, public spaces, goods and services and the inability to shape city transformations. • Post-industrial poor-quality spaces have negative impacts on some determinants of mental health. • Redevelopment projects prioritize economic goals at the expense of social/health. • Redevelopment projects initiates gentrification, excluding long-term residents from benefits. • Lower-class residents are excluded from participation in decision-making. • Redevelopment disempowers residents providing right to the unhealthy deprived city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While China's economy has grown rapidly in recent decades, urban-rural inequalities in mental health have persisted, and depression is more prevalent among rural women. Using a nationally-representative survey data in China, this paper investigates the impact of women's off-farm employment on their depressive symptoms. Results from instrumental variable and individual fixed effects estimation show that women's participation in off-farm employment leads to a significant reduction in depressive symptoms. We further take into account the confounding effects of working conditions, and the main results are robust. Moreover, off-farm employment enhances women's mental health mainly through pathways including increased absolute income, higher self-perceived relative income, more frequent healthy behaviors, increased likelihood of health investment, and obtaining more formal social support. Further evidence suggests that the depression-reducing effect of off-farm employment is more effective for those with more severe depressive symptoms, middle-aged and elderly persons, and women with lower body mass index. The findings have important implications for preventing depressive disorders and improving mental health in China and other developing countries. • We investigate the impact of women's off-farm employment on their depressive symptoms in rural China. • Women's participation in off-farm employment leads to a significant reduction in depressive symptoms. • Formal social supports derived from workplace are important mechanisms by which employment affects depressive symptoms. • The depression-reducing effect is more effective for women with more severe symptoms and middle-aged and elderly persons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses changes occurring in the field of English forensic psychiatry which appear to be linked to feelings of discomfort amongst medical professionals who manage care in such settings. These changes are neither the result of a sudden ‘shock’ to the system, nor small improvisations at the margins, but instead appear to reflect a growing perception amongst psychiatrists of accepted field practice as inadequate for some types of patients. To understand how feelings and emotions are implicated in these changes we draw on and develop the work of Pierre Bourdieu to suggest that changes must be seen in the context of field tensions, which have implications for habitus. However, we do not view feelings of discomfort merely as a response to these tensions. Instead we suggest a more dynamic process. The habitus plays a key role in structuring what people pay attention to, how they perceive it and therefore, whether they experience particular feelings in the first place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper analysed the directions of associations between individual-level structural social capital, in the form of civic engagement, and depressive symptoms across time from age 16–42 years in Swedish men and women. More specifically, we asked whether civic engagement was related to changes in depressive symptoms, if it was the other way around, or whether the association was bi-directional. This longitudinal study used data from a 26-year prospective cohort material of 1001 individuals in Northern Sweden (482 women and 519 men). Civic engagement was measured by a single-item question reflecting the level of engagement in clubs/organisations. Depressive symptoms were assessed by a composite index. Directions of associations were analysed by means of gender-separate cross-lagged structural equation models. Models were adjusted for parental social class, parental unemployment, parental health, and family type at baseline (age 16). Levels of both civic engagement and depressive symptoms were relatively stable across time. The model with the best fit to data showed that, in men, youth civic engagement was negatively associated with depressive symptoms in adulthood, thus supporting the hypothesis that involvement in social networks promotes health, most likely through provision of social and psychological support, perceived influence, and sense of belonging. Accordingly, interventions to promote civic engagement in young men could be a way to prevent poor mental health for men later on in life. No cross-lagged effects were found among women. We discuss this gender difference in terms of gendered experiences of civic engagement which in turn generate different meanings and consequences for men and women, such as civic engagement not being as positive for women’s mental health as for that of men. We conclude that theories on structural social capital and interventions to facilitate civic engagement for health promoting purposes need to acknowledge gendered life circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of housing mobility and neighborhood effects on health often treat neighborhoods as if they were isolated islands. This paper argues that conceptualizing neighborhoods as part of the wider spatial context within which they are embedded may be key in advancing our understanding of the role of local context in the life of urban dwellers. Analyses are based on mental health and neighborhood context measurements taken on over 3000 low-income families who participated in the Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing Demonstration Program (MTO), a large field experiment in five major U.S. cities. Results from analyses of two survey waves combined with Census data at different geographic scales indicate that assignment to MTO’s experimental condition of neighborhood poverty <10% significantly decreased average exposure to immediate and surrounding neighborhood disadvantage by 97% and 59% of a standard deviation, respectively, relative to the control group. Escaping concentrated disadvantage in either the immediate neighborhood or the surrounding neighborhood, but not both, was insufficient to make a difference for mental health. Instead, the results suggest that improving both the immediate and surrounding neighborhoods significantly benefits mental health. Compared to remaining in concentrated disadvantage in the immediate and surrounding neighborhoods, escaping concentrated disadvantage in both the immediate and surrounding neighborhoods (on average over the study duration) as a result of the intervention predicts an increase of 25% of a standard deviation in the composite mental health scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale The association between sickness presenteeism, defined as going to work despite illness, and different health outcomes is increasingly being recognized as a significant and relevant area of research. However, the long term effects on future employee health are less well understood, and to date there has been no review of the empirical evidence. The aim of this systematic review was to present a summary of the sickness presenteeism evidence so far in relation to health and wellbeing over time. Methods Eight databases were searched for longitudinal studies that investigated the consequences of workplace sickness presenteeism, had a baseline and at least one follow-up point, and included at least one specific measure of sickness presenteeism. Of the 453 papers identified, 12 studies met the eligibility criteria and were included in the review. Findings We adopted a thematic approach to the analysis because of the heterogeneous nature of the sickness presenteeism research. The majority of studies found that sickness presenteeism at baseline is a risk factor for future sickness absence and decreased self-rated health. However, our findings highlight that a consensus has not yet been reached in terms of physical and mental health. This is because the longitudinal studies included in this review adopt a wide variety of approaches including the definition of sickness presenteeism, recall periods, measures used and different statistical approaches which is problematic if this research area is to advance. Future research directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on gene-environment interaction was facilitated by breakthroughs in molecular biology in the late 20th century, especially in the study of mental health. There is a reliable interaction between candidate genes for depression and childhood adversity in relation to mental health outcomes. The aim of this paper is to explore the role of culture in this process in an urban community in Brazil. The specific cultural factor examined is cultural consonance, or the degree to which individuals are able to successfully incorporate salient cultural models into their own beliefs and behaviors. It was hypothesized that cultural consonance in family life would mediate the interaction of genotype and childhood adversity. In a study of 402 adult Brazilians from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, conducted from 2011 to 2014, the interaction of reported childhood adversity and a polymorphism in the 2A serotonin receptor was associated with higher depressive symptoms. Further analysis showed that the gene-environment interaction was mediated by cultural consonance in family life, and that these effects were more pronounced in lower social class neighborhoods. The findings reinforce the role of the serotonergic system in the regulation of stress response and learning and memory, and how these processes in turn interact with environmental events and circumstances. Furthermore, these results suggest that gene-environment interaction models should incorporate a wider range of environmental experience and more complex pathways to better understand how genes and the environment combine to influence mental health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there has been a sizeable empirical literature measuring the effect of job precariousness on the mental health of workers the debate is still open, and understanding the true nature of such relationship has important policy implications. In this paper, we investigate the impact of precarious employment on mental health using a unique, very large data set that matches information on job contracts for over 2.7 million employees in Italy followed over the years 2007–2011, with their psychotropic medication prescription. We examine the causal effects of temporary contracts, their duration and the number of contract changes during the year on the probability of having one or more prescriptions for medication to treat mental health problems. To this end, we estimate a dynamic Probit model, and deal with the potential endogeneity of regressors by adopting an instrumental variables approach. As instruments, we use firm-level probabilities of being a temporary worker as well as other firm-level variables that do not depend on the mental illness status of the workers. Our results show that the probability of psychotropic medication prescription is higher for workers under temporary job contracts. More days of work under temporary contract as well as frequent changes in temporary contract significantly increase the probability of developing mental health problems that need to be medically treated. We also find that moving from permanent to temporary employment increases mental illness; symmetrically, although with a smaller effect in absolute value, moving from temporary to permanent employment tends to reduce it. Policy interventions aimed at increasing the flexibility of the labour market through an increase of temporary contracts should also take into account the social and economic cost of these reforms, in terms of psychological wellbeing of employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bisexuality is consistently associated with poor mental health outcomes. In population-based data, this is partially explained by income differences between bisexual people and lesbian, gay, and/or heterosexual individuals. However, the interrelationships between bisexuality, poverty, and mental health are poorly understood. In this paper, we examine the relationships between these variables using a mixed methods study of 302 adult bisexuals from Ontario, Canada. Participants were recruited using respondent-driven sampling to complete an internet-based survey including measures of psychological distress and minority stress. A subset of participants completed a semi-structured qualitative interview to contextualize their mental health experiences. Using information regarding household income, number of individuals supported by the income and geographic location, participants were categorized as living below or above the Canadian Low Income Cut Off (LICO). Accounting for the networked nature of the sample, participants living below the LICO had significantly higher mean scores for depression and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and reported significantly more perceived discrimination compared to individuals living above the LICO. Grounded theory analysis of the qualitative interviews suggested four pathways through which bisexuality and poverty may intersect to impact mental health: through early life experiences linked to bisexuality or poverty that impacted future financial stability; through effects of bisexual identity on employment and earning potential; through the impact of class and sexual orientation discrimination on access to communities of support; and through lack of access to mental health services that could provide culturally competent care. These mixed methods data help us understand the income disparities associated with bisexual identity in population-based data, and suggest points of intervention to address their impact on bisexual mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale Several studies have shown a link between psychological distress in early life and subsequent higher unemployment, but none have used sibling models to account for the unobserved family background characteristics which may explain the relationship. Objective This paper uses the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997 data to examine whether adolescent psychological distress in 2000 predicts higher unemployment over 2000–11, whether this relationship changed in the period following the Great Recession, and whether it is robust to adjustment for family effects. Methods 7125 cohort members (2986 siblings) self-reported their mental health in 2000 and employment activities over 2000–11. This association was examined using Probit and ordinary least squares regressions controlling for intelligence, physical health, other sociodemographic characteristics and family background. Results After adjustment for covariates and compared to those with low distress, highly distressed adolescents were 2.7 percentage points (32%) more likely to be unemployed, 5.1 points (26%) more likely to be unemployed or out of the labor force and experienced 11 weeks (28%) more unemployment. The impact of high distress was similar to a one standard deviation decrease in intelligence, and double the magnitude of having a serious physical health problem, and these estimates were robust to adjustment for family fixed-effects. The highly distressed were also disproportionately more likely to become unemployed or exit the labor force in the years following the Great Recession. Conclusion These findings provide strong evidence of the unemployment penalty of early-life psychological distress and suggest that this relationship may be intensified during economic recessions. Investing in mental health in early life may be an effective way to reduce unemployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background People with disabilities have difficulties in obtaining work. However, evidence suggests that those with disabilities derive substantial mental health benefits from employment. This paper assesses how the relationship between work and mental health is influenced by psychosocial job quality for people working with a disability. Methods The study design was a longitudinal cohort with 13 annual waves of data collection, yielding a sample of 122,883 observations from 21,848 people. Fixed-effects within-person regression was used to control for time invariant confounding. The Mental Component Summary (MCS) of the Short Form 36 (SF-36) measure was used as the primary outcome measure. The main exposure was a six-category measure of psychosocial job quality and employment status (including ‘not in the labour force’ [NILF] and unemployment). Disability status (‘no waves of disability reported’ and ‘all contributed waves with reported disability’) was assessed as an effect modifier. We also conducted a secondary analysis on respondents contributing both disability and non-disability waves. Results For those with no disability, the greatest difference in mental health (compared to optimal employment) occurs when people have the poorest quality jobs (−2.12, 95% CI −2.48, −1.75, p < 0.001). The relative difference in mental health was less in relation to NILF and unemployment (−0.39 and −0.66 respectively). For those with consistent disability, the difference in mental health when employed in an optimal job was similar between the poorest quality jobs (−2.25, 95% CI −3.84, −0.65, p = 0.006), NILF (−2.84, 95% CI −4.49, −1.20, p = 0.001) or unemployment (−2.56, 95% CI −4.32, −0.80, p = 0.004). These results were confirmed by the secondary analysis. Conclusions Efforts to improve psychosocial job quality may have significant mental health benefits for people with disabilities. This will contribute to the economic viability of disability employment insurance schemes in Australia and other high-income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]