https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-12/uota-uje120220.php
News Release 2-Dec-2020
University of Texas at Austin
Declines in blue-collar jobs may have left some working-class men frustrated by unmet job expectations and more likely to suffer an early death by suicide or drug poisoning, according to a study led by sociologists at The University of Texas at Austin.
In the study, the researchers compared life outcomes of 11,680 men to the job expectations they held as high school seniors in the early 1980s. The study showed that men who expected to work in jobs that did not require a college degree but later faced declines in the job market were nearly three times as likely to suffer early deaths by suicide and drug poisoning as men who sought work that required a bachelor's degree.
The study, published in JAMA Network Open, is the first to link the rise in suicide and drug-poisoning deaths among men without a college degree to declines in working-class jobs.
"Work plays a major role in how individuals experience their communities, derive a sense of purpose, and thus develop a sense of psychological well-being," said lead author Chandra Muller, a sociology professor and researcher at the Population Research Center at UT Austin. "It's possible that occupational expectations developed in adolescence serve as a benchmark for perceptions of adult success and, when unmet, pose a risk of self-injury."
Early death from self-injury has risen dramatically in recent decades, especially among middle-age white men whose deaths by suicide and drug poisoning increased by 9 and 31 per 100,000 (respectively) between 1980 and 2013. At the same time, the labor market also experienced a discerning trend: the decline of well-paying jobs that do not require a college degree.
•••••
No comments:
Post a Comment