The Scarring Effects of Father’s Unemployment? Job-Security Satisfaction and Mental Health at Midlife

Objectives We investigate the association between early-life paternal unemployment and midlife mental health, examining whether the impact of father’s unemployment may vary contingent on the broader economic context on which it occurred. We also investigate job-security satisfaction as a potential mediator of this association. MethodWe utilize random-effects models, drawing on 15 waves of data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, with 7,438 individuals and 42,309 individual-time observations. Results We find respondents whose father was unemployed report worse mental health at midlife (−2.27; p < .01), with the association being modest, though statistically significant. This association is also stronger for younger respondents, whose paternal unemployment was more likely during the economic downturn of the mid 1970s in Australia. Paternal unemployment is also associated with lower satisfaction with job security at midlife (−0.17; p < 0.05), which is related to worse mental health; however, it explains little of the association between paternal unemployment and mental health. Discussion Existing research finds paternal unemployment relates to educational attainment, socioeconomic achievement, and wellbeing in the shorter term, but exposure to this event may also have enduring implications for the wellbeing of the offspring.