title: Fear of Unemployment and its Effect on the Mental Health of Spouses.
abstract: Unemployment has been shown to have adverse effects on different aspects of a person's life, and even the fear of losing a job affects individuals negatively. In addition, not only the individuals directly affected but also their spouses and other family members might be affected. Using data from the German Socio-economic Panel, this study analyzes the relationship between individual job worries and spouse's mental well-being. The empirical results remain robust to different specifications and indicate that fear of job loss is negatively related to spouses' mental well-being and that this relationship seems to be stronger in single-income than in dual-income households. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: RWI Essen and CINCH - Health Economics Research Center, University of Paderborn, Paderborn, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bünnings
authors.affiliation: CINCH - Health Economics Research Center, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kleibrink
authors.affiliation: CINCH - Health Economics Research Center, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Weßling
mesh_terms: D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology*; D014478:Unemployment / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: job worries; mental well-being; spillover effects