Purpose

Social inequalities in mental health can be captured by occupational situation and social class stratification. This study analyzes the adequacy of a classification of work and employment conditions and an adaptation of the Goldthorpe social class scheme in relation to mental health in Barcelona, Spain.

Design/methodology/approach

Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (CA) on working and employment conditions were used to empirically construct distinctive working groups. Through 2 logistic regression models, we contrasted the association between mental health and (1) the cluster of employment and working conditions (with 4 categories: insiders, instrumental, precarious and peripheral workers), and (2) a standard Spanish version of the Goldthorpe social class scheme. The performance of the 2 models was assessed with Akaike and Bayesian information criteria. The analyses were carried out using the Barcelona Health Survey (2016) including the labor force population from 22 to 64 years of age.

Findings

Wide inequalities were found in mental health with both class schemes. The empirical class scheme was more effective than the Goldthorpe social class scheme in explaining mental health inequalities. In particular, precarious and peripheral workers in the MCA-CA analysis, together with unemployed workers, emerged as distinctive social groups apparently masked within the lower social class in the standard scheme. When using the standard scheme, the authors recommend widening the scope at the bottom of the social class categories while shrinking it at the top as well as considering unemployed persons as a separate category to better represent mental health inequalities.

Social implications

The working poor appear to report at least as much poor mental health as unemployed persons. Policies aimed at more inclusive work should consider job quality improvements to improve the mental well-being of the labor force.

Originality/value

Our study examines the utility of social classes to explain mental health inequalities by comparing an empirically based social class to the Spanish adaptation of the Goldthorpe classification.

中文翻译：

---

以实证的方式重新审视西班牙巴塞罗那的心理健康社会阶层计划

目的

心理健康方面的社会不平等可以通过职业状况和社会阶层分层来体现。本研究分析了西班牙巴塞罗那的工作和就业条件分类的充分性以及 Goldthorpe 社会阶层计划与心理健康相关的适应性。

设计/方法/方法

针对工作和就业条件的多重对应分析 (MCA) 和层次聚类分析 (CA) 被用于实证构建独特的工作组。通过 2 个逻辑回归模型，我们对比了心理健康与 (1) 就业和工作条件集群（有 4 个类别：内部人员、工具、不稳定和外围工人）和 (2) 标准西班牙版本的 Goldthorpe 之间的关联社会阶层计划。使用 Akaike 和贝叶斯信息标准评估 2 个模型的性能。这些分析是使用巴塞罗那健康调查（2016 年）进行的，包括 22 至 64 岁的劳动力人口。

发现

两种课程计划在心理健康方面都存在广泛的不平等。在解释心理健康不平等方面，经验阶级方案比戈德索普社会阶级方案更有效。特别是，在 MCA-CA 分析中，不稳定和边缘工人，以及失业工人，作为明显隐藏在标准计划中的下层社会阶层中的独特社会群体而出现。在使用标准方案时，作者建议扩大社会阶层类别底部的范围，同时缩小顶部的范围，并将失业人员视为一个单独的类别，以更好地代表心理健康不平等。

社会影响

有工作的穷人报告的心理健康状况似乎至少与失业者一样多。旨在实现更具包容性工作的政策应考虑改善工作质量，以改善劳动力的心理健康。

原创性/价值

我们的研究通过比较基于经验的社会阶层与西班牙对 Goldthorpe 分类的改编，检验了社会阶层在解释心理健康不平等方面的效用。