Search

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed many employees away from their offices into their homes. During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, in early spring 2020, most countries recommended or required that employees work remotely from home to reduce the spread of infection at workplaces and during travel to and from these workplaces., Objective: The main aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between working from home, work/life conflict and mental wellbeing in Europe during the pandemic., Methods: The study was based on a large-scale, online survey that was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic three times, in 2020, 2021 and 2022, in 27 EU countries, and included 53 214 respondents that were employed at the time of the study., Results: The results showed that working from home, work-to-life conflict and life-to-work conflict has increased and that mental wellbeing has decreased during the pandemic. Our regression analyses showed that the number of hours worked from home was negatively associated with work-to-life conflict and positively associated with life-to-work conflict. These results indicate that working from home can have both positive and negative consequences for employees' work/life conflict. The regression results showed that hours worked from home, work-to-life conflict and life-to-work conflict were negatively associated with mental wellbeing., Conclusion: It is important to consider different work situations for different working life groupings when implementing work-from-home measures. Organizations must consider how work is supervised and help managers understand how to support employees to achieve work-life balance when working remotely.

Background: The increasing gender equality during the 20th century, mainly in the Nordic countries, represents a major social change. A well-established theory is that this may affect the mental health patterns of women and men. This study aimed at examining associations between childhood and adulthood gendered life on mental ill-health symptoms., Methods: A follow-up study of a cohort of all school leavers in a medium-sized industrial town in northern Sweden was performed from age 16 to age 42. Of those still alive of the original cohort, 94% (n = 1007) participated during the whole period. Gendered life was divided into three stages according to whether they were traditional or non-traditional (the latter includes equal): childhood (mother's paid work position), adulthood at age 30 (ideology and childcare), and adulthood at age 42 (partnership and childcare). Mental ill-health was measured by self-reported anxious symptoms ("frequent nervousness") and depressive symptoms ("frequent sadness") at age 42. The statistical method was logistic regression analysis, finally adjusted for earlier mental ill-health symptoms and social confounding factors., Results: Generally, parents' gendered life was not decisive for a person's own gendered life, and adulthood gender position ruled out the impact of childhood gender experience on self-reported mental ill-health. For women, non-traditional gender ideology at age 30 was associated with decreased risk of anxious symptoms (76% for traditional childhood, 78% for non-traditional childhood). For men, non-traditional childcare at age 42 was associated with decreased risk of depressive symptoms (84% for traditional childhood, 78% for non-traditional childhood). A contradictory indication was that non-traditional women in childcare at age 30 had a threefold increased risk of anxious symptoms at age 42, but only when having experienced a traditional childhood., Conclusion: Adulthood gender equality is generally good for self-reported mental health regardless of whether one opposes or continues one's gendered history. However, the childcare findings indicate a differentiated picture; men seem to benefit in depressive symptoms from embracing this traditionally female duty, while women suffer anxious symptoms from departing from it, if their mother did not.

The aim was to investigate the knowledge and the attitude regarding recovery among practitioners working in the Swedish mental health system, Personligt Ombud (PO), Supported Housing Team (SHT) and Psychiatric Out Patient Service (POPS), to determine whether and how knowledge and attitude regarding recovery differ between the three services. A web-based questionnaire based on the Recovery Knowledge Inventory was sent to the participants. Participant selection ensured that different parts of Sweden were represented. A multiple linear regression was used to examine the result under control of Sex, Age, Educational Level, Further Education, Relevant Work Experience and Training in Recovery. The result of the regression showed that POs had higher scores than both SHT and POPS on the subscales, even under control of other variables. The SHT differed significantly from POs on two of the subscales and POPS differed significantly from POs on all subscales. Personnel with university education, more work experience or specific training in recovery also had a higher mean score. Swedish practitioners need to learn more about certain aspects of the recovery process. The differences between the services may possibly be due to the services' organization, assignment and role. Other important aspects were the level of education and having specific training in recovery; the combination of these elements could facilitate the development of a recovery-oriented mental health system.

Although the availability of social support and psychological attachment to work have been shown to influence mental well-being in unemployment, the main determinant suggested in research is economic strain. Yet, though the level of state support in unemployment is the most crucial determinant of economic strain, there has been little research on the impact of welfare benefit regime on mental well-being among the unemployed. In this paper we compare the impact of benefit regime by comparing the unemployed in Britain, Ireland and Sweden. We find that the type of benefit received is an important determinant of mental distress with income replacement benefits being more beneficial than flat rate benefits. Results also show that different systems differentially impact on different groups with income replacement benefits tending to maintain pre-unemployment differences in distress and flat rate benefits equalising these differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classic research on unemployment and mental health has focused on the functions of employment. These functions are considered to be of equal importance for all unemployed. A critique of this perspective has been that it views the unemployed as passive and homogeneous. Instead, an agency approach has been suggested, which focuses on the individual goals of the unemployed. This paper develops and tests a model for understanding the differentiated mental consequences of unemployment, which on a theoretical level integrates both the structural restrictions of the unemployment situation and the agency of the individual. The model is based on previous findings which indicate that mental well-being is dependent on the economic need for employment, on the one hand, and on the psychosocial need for employment, on the other hand. The model integrates both these aspects and the results show that the combined effect is of centred importance for the differentiated mental well-being of the unemployed. The analysis is based on a longitudinal survey of 3,500 randomly selected, unemployed Swedes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]