PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

 

e-ISSN 2231-8534
ISSN 0128-7702

Home / Regular Issue / JSSH Vol. 29 (3) Sep. 2021 / JSSH-8155-2021

 

Socioeconomic Status and Mental Health among Low-income Employees: A Systematic Literature Review

Errna Nadhirah Kamalulil and Siti Aisyah Panatik

Pertanika Journal of Social Science and Humanities, Volume 29, Issue 3, September 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.47836/pjssh.29.3.20

Keywords: Low-income employees, mental health, PRISMA, socioeconomic status, systematic review

Published on: 27 September 2021

Low-income employees are among the focus individuals whose socioeconomic status plays a major role in determining positive or negative mental health status. Mental health among low-income employees is a global issue that requires a comprehensive understanding of its determinant. The objective of this study is to systematically review scientific evidence on the impact of socioeconomic status on mental health among low-income employees. This systematic review was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines, and data retrieval was done on 7th October 2020 using Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar. Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria of this study, a total of 19 studies were included. Results indicate that the majority of the included studies revealed that socioeconomic status influences mental health, while two studies showed no influence. In conclusion, the findings from the review can provide guidelines to promote better mental health among low-income employees.

  • Adjaye-Gbewonyo, K., Avendano, M., Subramanian, S. V., & Kawachi, I. (2016). Income inequality and depressive symptoms in South Africa: A longitudinal analysis of the National Income Dynamics Study. Health Place, 42, 37-46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2016.08.013

  • Asebedo, S. D., & Wilmarth, M. J. (2017). Does how we feel about financial strain matter for mental health? Journal of Financial Therapy, 8(1), 62-80. https://doi.org/10.4148/1944-9771.1130

  • Bøe, T., Petrie, K. J., Sivertsen, B., & Hysing, M. (2019). Interplay of subjective and objective economic well-being on the mental health of Norwegian adolescents. SSM - Population Health, 9, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100471

  • Chadegani, A., Salehi, H., Md Yunus, M. M., Farhadi, H., Fooladi, M., Farhadi, M., & Ale Ebrahim, N. (2013). A comparison between two main academic literature collections: Web of science and scopus databases. Asian Social Science, 9(5), 18-26. https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v9n5p18

  • Cingano, F. (2014). Trends in income inequality and its impact on economic growth. In OECD Social, Employment, and Migration Working Papers (No. 163). https://doi.org/10.1787/5jxrjncwxv6j-en

  • Damaske, S., Zawadzki, M. J., & Smyth, J. M. (2016). Stress at work: Differential experiences of high versus low SES workers. Social Science & Medicine, 156, 125-133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.03.010

  • Dijkstra-Kersten, S. M. A., Biesheuvel-Leliefeld, K. E. M., van der Wouden, J. C., Penninx, B. W. J. H., & van Marwijk, H. W. J. (2015). Associations of financial strain and income with depressive and anxiety disorders. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 69(7), 660-665. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2014-205088

  • Dikshit, S., & Acharya, S. K. (2017). Impact of occupational stress on the work life balance of teaching professionals in higher education with special reference to Bhubaneswar City, Odisha. Advances in Economics and Business Management, 4(6), 357-361.

  • Dohrenwend, B. S., Krasnoff, L., Askenasy, A. R., & Dohrenwend, B. P. (1978). Exemplification of a method for scaling life events: The PERI Life Events Scale. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 19(2), 205-229. https://doi.org/10.2307/2136536

  • Domènech-Abella, J., Mundó, J., Leonardi, M., Chatterji, S., Tobiasz-Adamczyk, B., Koskinen, S., Ayuso-Mateos, J. L., & Haro, J. M. (2018). The association between socioeconomic status and depression among older adults in Finland, Poland and Spain: A comparative cross-sectional study of distinct measures and pathways. Journal of Affective Disorders, 241, 311-318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2018.08.077

  • Economou, A., & Theodossiou, I. (2011). Poor and sick: Estimating the relationship between household income and health. Review of Income and Wealth, 57(3), 395-411. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4991.2010.00416.x

  • Ferreira, F. H. G., & Ravallion, M. (2008). Global poverty and onequality: A review of the evidence. The World Bank. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2014.01.015

  • Fortin, M. (2010). The connection between low income, weak labour force attachment and poor health. Canadian Studies in Population, 37, 25-52. https://doi.org/10.25336/p62s5f

  • Freeman, A., Tyrovolas, S., Koyanagi, A., Chatterji, S., Leonardi, M., Ayuso-Mateos, J. L., Tobiasz-Adamczyk, B., Koskinen, S., Rummel-Kluge, C., & Haro, J. M. (2016). The role of socio-economic status in depression: Results from the COURAGE (aging survey in Europe). BMC Public Health, 16(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3638-0

  • Golberstein, E. (2016). The effects of income on mental health: Evidence from the Social Security Notch. Physiology & Behavior, 176(1), 139-148.

  • Goodman, E., Adler, N. E., Kawachi, I., Frazier, A. L., Huang, B., & Colditz, G. A. (2001). Adolescents’ perceptions of social status: Development and evaluation of a new indicator. Pediatrics, 108(2), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.108.2.e31

  • Haddaway, N. R., Collins, A. M., Coughlin, D., & Kirk, S. (2015). The role of Google scholar in evidence reviews and its applicability to grey literature searching. PLoS ONE, 10(9), Article e0138237. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0138237

  • Hiilamo, H. (2014). Is income inequality “toxic for mental health”? An ecological study on municipal level risk factors for depression. PLoS ONE, 9(3), Article e92775. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0092775

  • Hoffman, G. J., & Wallace, S. P. (2018). The cost of caring: Economic vulnerability, serious emotional distress, and poor health behaviors among paid and unpaid family and friend caregivers. Research on Aging, 40(8), 791-809. https://doi.org/10.1177/0164027517742430

  • Honjo, K., Kawakami, N., Tsuchiya, M., Sakurai, K., & WMH-J 2002-2006 Survey Group. (2014). Association of subjective and objective socioeconomic status with subjective mental health and mental disorders among Japanese men and women. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 21(3), 421-429. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-013-9309-y

  • Huang, S., Hou, J., Sun, L., Dou, D., Liu, X., & Zhang, H. (2017). The effects of objective and subjective socioeconomic status on subjective well-being among rural-to-urban migrants in China: The moderating role of subjective social mobility. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 819. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00819

  • Isaacs, A. N., Enticott, J., Meadows, G., & Inder, B. (2018). Lower income levels in Australia are strongly associated with elevated psychological distress: Implications for healthcare and other policy areas. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 9, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00536

  • Jarl, J., Cantor-Graae, E., Chak, T., Sunbaunat, K., & Larsson, C. A. (2015). Trauma and poor mental health in relation to economic status: The case of Cambodia 35 years later. PLoS ONE, 10(8), Article e0136410. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136410

  • Kader Maideen, S. F., Mohd Sidik, S., Rampal, L., & Mukhtar, F. (2014). Prevalence, associated factors and predictors of depression among adults in the community of Selangor, Malaysia. PLoS ONE, 9(4), Article e95395. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0095395

  • Kim, I., Bahk, J., Yun, S. C., & Khang, Y. H. (2017). Income gaps in self-rated poor health and its association with life expectancy in 245 districts of Korea. Epidemiology and Health, 39, Article e2017011. https://doi.org/10.4178/epih.e2017011

  • Lazzarino, A. I., Yiengprugsawan, V., Seubsman, S. ang, Steptoe, A., & Sleigh, A. C. (2014). The associations between unhealthy behaviours, mental stress, and low socio-economic status in an international comparison of representative samples from Thailand and England. Globalization and Health, 10(10), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1186/1744-8603-10-10

  • Lund, C., Breen, A., Flisher, A. J., Kakuma, R., Corrigall, J., Joska, J. A., Swartz, L., & Patel, V. (2010). Poverty and common mental disorders in low and middle income countries: A systematic review. Social Science and Medicine, 71(3), 517-528. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.04.027

  • Moher, D., Liberati, A., Tetzlaff, J., Altman, D. G., & Group, T. P. (2009). Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: The PRISMA statement. PLoS Medicine, 6(7), Article e1000097. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000097

  • Mongeon, P., & Paul-Hus, A. (2016). The journal coverage of Web of Science and Scopus: A comparative analysis. Scientometrics, 106(1), 213-228. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1765-5

  • Ng, C. W. L., Tan, W. S. hi., Gunapal, P. P. G., Wong, L. Y. i., & Heng, B. H. oo. (2014). Association of socioeconomic status (SES) and social support with depressive symptoms among the elderly in Singapore. Annals of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore, 43(12), 576-587.

  • Okoli, C. (2015). A guide to conducting a standalone systematic literature review. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 37(1), 879-910. https://doi.org/10.17705/1CAIS.03743

  • Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2020). OECD Unemployment Rates (Issue May). https://www.oecd.org/sdd/labour-stats/unemployment-rates-oecd-05-2020.pdf

  • Ostrove, J. M., Adler, N. E., Kuppermann, M., & Washington, A. E. (2000). Objective and subjective assessments of socioeconomic status and their relationship to self-rated health in an ethnically diverse sample of pregnant women. Health Psychology, 19(6), 613-618. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.19.6.613

  • Pabayo, R., Kawachi, I., & Gilman, S. E. (2014). Income inequality among American states and the incidence of major depression. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 68, 110-115. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2013-203093

  • Patel, V., Burns, J. K., Dhingra, M., Tarver, L., Kohrt, B. A., & Lund, C. (2018). Income inequality and depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association and a scoping review of mechanisms. World Psychiatry, 17(1), 76-89. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20492

  • Präg, P., Mills, M. C., & Wittek, R. (2016). Subjective socioeconomic status and health in cross-national comparison. Social Science and Medicine, 149, 84-92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.11.044

  • Reiss, F., Meyrose, A.-K., Otto, C., Lampert, T., Klasen, F., & Ravens-Sieberer, U. (2019). Socioeconomic status , stressful life situations and mental health problems in children and adolescents: Results of the German BELLA cohort-study. PLoS ONE, 14(3), Article e0213700. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0213700

  • Rezaei, S., Hajizadeh, M., Khosravipour, M., Khosravi, F., & Rezaeian, S. (2018). Socioeconomic inequalities in poor health-related quality of life in Kermanshah, Western Iran: A decomposition analysis. Journal of Research in Health Sciences, 18(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.26719/emhj.20.001

  • Semega, J., Kollar, M., Creamer, J., & Mohanty, A. (2020). Income and poverty in the United States: 2018. In Current Population Reports. U.S. Government Printing Office. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2019 /demo/p60-266.pdf

  • Stern, C., Jordan, Z., & McArthur, A. (2014). Developing the review question and inclusion criteria. AJN, American Journal of Nursing, 114(4), 53-56. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NAJ.0000445689.67800.86

  • Test, I. S. T., Test, M. U., Status, H., & Analizi, V. (2014). Investigating the effects of poverty on health and quality of life in poor people aged 65 and over in Etimesgut district, Ankara. Turkish Journal of Geriatrics, 17(4), 397-403.

  • Van Deurzen, I., Van Ingen, E., & Van Oorschot, W. J. H. (2015). Income inequality and depression: The role of social comparisons and coping resources. European Sociological Review, 31(4), 477-489. https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcv007

  • Vu-Ngoc, H., Elawady, S. S., Mehyar, G. M., Abdelhamid, A. H., Mattar, O. M., Halhouli, O., Vuong, N. L., Mohd Ali, C. D., Hassan, U. H., Kien, N. D., Hirayama, K., & Huy, N. T. (2018). Quality of flow diagram in systematic review and/or meta-analysis. PLoS ONE, 13(6), Article e0195955. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0195955

  • Wickrama, K. A. S., Surjadi, F. F., Lorenz, F. O., Conger, R. D., & O’Neal, C. W. (2012). Family economic hardship and progression of poor mental health in middle-aged husbands and wives. Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Studies, 61(2), 297-312. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2011.00697.x

  • World Bank. (2021). World Bank Country and Lending Groups. https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519-world-bank-country-and-lending-groups#:~:text=For the current 2021 fiscal,those with a GNI per

ISSN 0128-7702

e-ISSN 2231-8534

Article ID

JSSH-8155-2021

Download Full Article PDF

Share this article

Recent Articles