Rewarding work : cross-national differences in benefits, volunteering during unemployment, well-being and mental health

Kamerāde, D; Bennett, MR

Abstract

Due to increasing labour market flexibilisation a growing number of people are likely to experience unemployment and, as a consequence, lower mental health and well-being. This article examines cross-national differences in well-being and mental health between unemployed people who engage in voluntary work and those who do not, using multilevel data from the European Quality of Life Survey on unemployed individuals in 29 European countries and other external sources.
This article finds that, regardless of their voluntary activity, unemployed people have higher levels of well-being and mental health in countries with more generous unemployment benefits. Unexpectedly, the results also suggest that regular volunteering can actually be detrimental for mental health in countries with less generous unemployment benefits. This article concludes that individual agency exercised through voluntary work can partially improve well-being but the generosity of unemployment benefits is vital for alleviating the negative mental health effects of unemployment.

Citation

Kamerāde, D., & Bennett, M. (2018). Rewarding work : cross-national differences in benefits, volunteering during unemployment, well-being and mental health. Work, Employment and Society, 32(1), 38-56. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017016686030

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 17, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Mar 14, 2017
• Publication Date: Feb 1, 2018
• Deposit Date: Dec 14, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 14, 2016
• Journal: Work, Employment and Society
• Print ISSN: 0950-0170
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-8722
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Volume: 32
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 38-56
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017016686030
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017016686030
• Related Public URLs: https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/journal/work-employment-and-society
• Additional Information: Funders : The European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration; Projects : Third Sector Impact; Grant Number: 613034