Resumen de Precarious employment and mental health in Europe. Development, validation and association with mental health of a novel cross-national measure
This dissertation aims to advance knowledge on the contours of precarious employment (PE) as a social determinant of health by developing, validat- ing, and evaluating the association with mental health of a novel measure of PE in Europe. A multidimensional summative scale conceptually grounded on the Employment Precariousness Scale (EPRES) was built drawing on the European Working Conditions Survey-2015. Such scale, (namely, EPRES-E) consists of 13 items sorted into six dimensions (tem- porariness, vulnerability, disempowerment, exercise of rights, wages, and unpredictability of working times). The proposed structure proved to be valid first in Spain and, thereafter, in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. Accordingly, the role of welfare states in the rela- tionship between EPRES-E and poor mental health was tested in these countries, both among women and men. Consistent associations were found in all genders and welfare states analyzed. Besides, Central-Eastern welfare states were found to aggravate the abovementioned relationship among women, compared to their counterparts in continental welfare states. No differences were found among men, though.
