IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v131y2015icp58-65.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The mediating effect of effort-reward imbalance in household and family work on the relationship between education and women's health

Author

Listed:
  • Sperlich, Stefanie
  • Geyer, Siegfried

Abstract

Occupational stress as a key determinant for explaining health inequalities has been well established while the impact of stress related to family work has rarely been considered. This study investigates whether stress in household and family work may contribute to health inequalities in women. We used a population-based sample of German mothers (n = 3129) to determine the total, direct and indirect effects of education on somatic complaints by means of OLS regression-based mediation models. Inference about indirect effects was determined by 95% bias corrected bootstrap confidence intervals. Education was assessed by a measure combining school education and vocational training. Stress was measured using the adopted effort-reward-imbalance (ERI) questionnaire for household and family work. The von Zerssen list of somatic complaints was used as measure of subjective health. We found a significant total effect of education on somatic complaints (p ≤ 0.001) as well as significant indirect effects through ‘effort’ (p = 0.006) and ‘reward’ in household and family work (p ≤ 0.001). However, the subscales of ERI pointed into different directions: while levels of ‘effort’ increased with women's educational attainment, levels of distress related to low ‘reward’ decreased with higher levels of education. Our findings suggest that the effect of women's education on somatic complaints is mediated through stress related to low reward for household and family work. In particular, lack of ‘societal esteem’ for household and family work contributed to health disadvantages in lower educated mothers. We conclude that research on health inequality would benefit from taking stressful experiences in household and family work greater into account.

Suggested Citation

  • Sperlich, Stefanie & Geyer, Siegfried, 2015. "The mediating effect of effort-reward imbalance in household and family work on the relationship between education and women's health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 58-65.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:131:y:2015:i:c:p:58-65
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.03.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953615001379
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.03.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Griffin, Joan M. & Fuhrer, Rebecca & Stansfeld, Stephen A. & Marmot, Michael, 2002. "The importance of low control at work and home on depression and anxiety: do these effects vary by gender and social class?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 54(5), pages 783-798, March.
    2. Fokkema, Tineke, 2002. "Combining a job and children: contrasting the health of married and divorced women in the Netherlands?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 54(5), pages 741-752, March.
    3. Florence Jaumotte, 2003. "Female Labour Force Participation: Past Trends and Main Determinants in OECD Countries," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 376, OECD Publishing.
    4. Arber, Sara, 1997. "Comparing inequalities in women's and men's health: Britain in the 1990s," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 44(6), pages 773-787, March.
    5. Chandola, Tarani & Kuper, Hannah & Singh-Manoux, Archana & Bartley, Mel & Marmot, Michael, 2004. "The effect of control at home on CHD events in the Whitehall II study: Gender differences in psychosocial domestic pathways to social inequalities in CHD," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(8), pages 1501-1509, April.
    6. Koskinen, Seppo & Martelin, Tuija, 1994. "Why are socioeconomic mortality differences smaller among women than among men?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 1385-1396, May.
    7. Wamala, Sarah P. & Mittleman, Murray A. & Horsten, Myriam & Schenck-Gustafsson, Karin & Orth-Gomér, Kristina, 2000. "Job stress and the occupational gradient in coronary heart disease risk in women: The Stockholm Female Coronary Risk Study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 481-489, August.
    8. Matthews, Sharon & Hertzman, Clyde & Ostry, Aleck & Power, Chris, 1998. "Gender, work roles and psychosocial work characteristics as determinants of health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 46(11), pages 1417-1424, January.
    9. Siv S. Gustafsson & Shirley Dex & Cécile M. M. P. Wetzels & Jan Dirk Vlasblom, 1996. "Women`s labor force transitions in connection with childbirth: A panel data comparison between Germany, Sweden and Great Britain," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 9(3), pages 223-246.
    10. Martikainen, Pekka, 1995. "Women's employment, marriage, motherhood and mortality: A test of the multiple role and role accumulation hypotheses," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 199-212, January.
    11. Bosma, H. & Peter, R. & Siegrist, J. & Marmot, M., 1998. "Two alternative job stress models and the risk of coronary heart disease," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 88(1), pages 68-74.
    12. Mastekaasa, Arne, 2000. "Parenthood, gender and sickness absence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 50(12), pages 1827-1842, June.
    13. Stronks, Karien & van de Mheen, H. & Looman, Caspar W. N. & Mackenbach, Johan P., 0. "The importance of psychosocial stressors for socio-economic inequalities in perceived health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 46(4-5), pages 611-623, February.
    14. Arber, Sara, 1991. "Class, paid employment and family roles: Making sense of structural disadvantage, gender and health status," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 425-436, January.
    15. Lahelma, Eero & Arber, Sara & Kivelä, Katariina & Roos, Eva, 2002. "Multiple roles and health among British and Finnish women: the influence of socioeconomic circumstances," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 54(5), pages 727-740, March.
    16. Stefanie Sperlich & Sonja Arnhold-Kerri & Siegfried Geyer, 2011. "What accounts for depressive symptoms among mothers? The impact of socioeconomic status, family structure and psychosocial stress," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 56(4), pages 385-396, August.
    17. Palència, Laia & Malmusi, Davide & De Moortel, Deborah & Artazcoz, Lucía & Backhans, Mona & Vanroelen, Christophe & Borrell, Carme, 2014. "The influence of gender equality policies on gender inequalities in health in Europe," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 25-33.
    18. Matthews, Sharon & Power, Chris, 2002. "Socio-economic gradients in psychological distress: a focus on women, social roles and work-home characteristics," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 54(5), pages 799-810, March.
    19. van Vegchel, Natasja & de Jonge, Jan & Bosma, Hans & Schaufeli, Wilmar, 2005. "Reviewing the effort-reward imbalance model: drawing up the balance of 45 empirical studies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(5), pages 1117-1131, March.
    20. Siegrist, Johannes & Starke, Dagmar & Chandola, Tarani & Godin, Isabelle & Marmot, Michael & Niedhammer, Isabelle & Peter, Richard, 2004. "The measurement of effort-reward imbalance at work: European comparisons," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(8), pages 1483-1499, April.
    21. Graham, Hilary & Hawkins, Summer Sherburne & Law, Catherine, 2010. "Lifecourse influences on women's smoking before, during and after pregnancy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(4), pages 582-587, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bonnie Janzen & Laurie-Ann Hellsten, 2021. "Household Income and Psychological Distress: Exploring Women’s Paid and Unpaid Work as Mediators," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-15, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stefanie Sperlich & Sonja Arnhold-Kerri & Siegfried Geyer, 2011. "What accounts for depressive symptoms among mothers? The impact of socioeconomic status, family structure and psychosocial stress," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 56(4), pages 385-396, August.
    2. Stefanie Sperlich & Siegfried Geyer, 2015. "The impact of social and family-related factors on women’s stress experience in household and family work," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 60(3), pages 375-387, March.
    3. Li, Jian & Yang, Wenjie & Cho, Sung-il, 2006. "Gender differences in job strain, effort-reward imbalance, and health functioning among Chinese physicians," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(5), pages 1066-1077, March.
    4. Jing Liao & Eric J Brunner & Meena Kumari, 2013. "Is There an Association between Work Stress and Diurnal Cortisol Patterns? Findings from the Whitehall II Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(12), pages 1-8, December.
    5. Kalousova, Lucie & Mendes de Leon, Carlos, 2015. "Increase in frailty of older workers and retirees predicted by negative psychosocial working conditions on the job," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 275-283.
    6. Bonnie Janzen & Laurie-Ann Hellsten, 2021. "Household Income and Psychological Distress: Exploring Women’s Paid and Unpaid Work as Mediators," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-15, June.
    7. Oshio, Takashi & Inoue, Akiomi & Tsutsumi, Akizumi, 2012. "Does workplace social capital moderate the associations between job stressors and psychological distress? A cross-sectional analysis among Japanese workers," CIS Discussion paper series 575, Center for Intergenerational Studies, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    8. Shvartsman, Elena & Beckmann, Michael, 2015. "Stressed by your job: What is the role of personnel policy?," Working papers 2015/15, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    9. Mario Schnalzenberger & Nicole Schneeweis & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer & Martina Zweimüller, 2014. "Job Quality and Employment of Older People in Europe," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 28(2), pages 141-162, June.
    10. Fritzell, Sara & Ringbäck Weitoft, Gunilla & Fritzell, Johan & Burström, Bo, 2007. "From macro to micro: The health of Swedish lone mothers during changing economic and social circumstances," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(12), pages 2474-2488, December.
    11. Liebig, Stefan & Schupp, Jürgen, 2008. "Leistungs- oder Bedarfsgerechtigkeit? Über einen normativen Zielkonflikt des Wohlfahrtsstaats und seiner Bedeutung für die Bewertung des eigenen Erwerbseinkommens," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 59(1), pages 7-30.
    12. Karsten Marshall Elseth Rieck & Kjetil Telle, 2012. "Sick leave before, during and after pregnancy," Discussion Papers 690, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    13. Oliver Weigelt & J. Charlotte Seidel & Lucy Erber & Johannes Wendsche & Yasemin Z. Varol & Gerald M. Weiher & Petra Gierer & Claudia Sciannimanica & Richard Janzen & Christine J. Syrek, 2023. "Too Committed to Switch Off—Capturing and Organizing the Full Range of Work-Related Rumination from Detachment to Overcommitment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-29, February.
    14. Shimazu, Akihito & de Jonge, Jan, 2009. "Reciprocal relations between effort-reward imbalance at work and adverse health: A three-wave panel survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 60-68, January.
    15. Chun, Heeran & Khang, Young-Ho & Kim, Il-Ho & Cho, Sung-Il, 2008. "Explaining gender differences in ill-health in South Korea: The roles of socio-structural, psychosocial, and behavioral factors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 988-1001, September.
    16. Thierry Debrand & Pascale Lengagne, 2007. "Organisation du travail et sante des seniors en Europe," Working Papers DT3, IRDES institut for research and information in health economics, revised Feb 2007.
    17. Yi-Shih Chung & Paul Tae-Woo Lee & Jeong-Kwan Lee, 2017. "Burnout in seafarers: its antecedents and effects on incidents at sea," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(7), pages 916-931, October.
    18. Hall, Axel & Zoega, Gylfi, 2014. "Values and labor force participation in the Nordic countries," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 8, pages 1-43.
    19. Petra Rattay & Elena von der Lippe, 2020. "Association between Living with Children and the Health and Health Behavior of Women and Men. Are There Differences by Age? Results of the “German Health Update” (GEDA) Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-19, May.
    20. Lara Lebedinski & Cristiano Perugini & Marko Vladisavljević, 2023. "Child penalty in Russia: evidence from an event study," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 173-215, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:131:y:2015:i:c:p:58-65. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.