ABSTRACT

Despite the rise of in-work poverty across Europe, the psychological consequences of individual economic vulnerability are still rather unknown. Drawing on both objective and subjective conceptualizations of economic vulnerability, we investigate the effects of individual low labour income and perceived financial strain on mental well-being. We argue that economic vulnerability restricts workers’ agency and propose sense of control as a mediator in the relationship between economic vulnerability and mental well-being – irrespective of the household’s financial situation. Multilevel analyses across 19 years based on a sample of N = 7,107 employed adults from the German Socio-economic Panel (SOEP) demonstrated that a) persons reporting low income and higher financial strain showed lower health and life satisfaction, and b) intra-individual changes in income and financial strain were associated with corresponding changes in mental health and life satisfaction, respectively. These relationships were mediated by sense of control, both on the between- and the within-person level. The findings emphasize the importance of individual income and financial strain for mental well-being, and underline sense of control as an important psychological mechanism explaining individual consequences of economic vulnerability.

摘要

尽管整个欧洲的工作贫困现象有所增加，但个人经济脆弱性的心理后果仍然是相当未知的。利用经济脆弱性的客观和主观概念，我们调查了个人低劳动收入和感知到的财务压力对心理健康的影响。我们认为，经济脆弱性限制了工人的能动性，并提出控制感作为经济脆弱性和心理健康之间关系的中介——无论家庭的财务状况如何。基于来自德国社会经济小组 (SOEP) 的 N = 7,107 名就业成年人样本的 19 年多层次分析表明，a) 报告低收入和较高财务压力的人表现出较低的健康和生活满意度，b) 收入和财务压力的个体内变化分别与心理健康和生活满意度的相应变化相关。这些关系是由控制感介导的，无论是在人与人之间还是在人内。研究结果强调了个人收入和财务压力对心理健康的重要性，并强调控制感是解释经济脆弱性的个人后果的重要心理机制。