Precarious employment and mental health: looking for evidence for causality and explanatory mechanisms. The EPRES-Be II study

The general objective of this project is to advance our understanding of the relationship between precarious employment and mental health among Belgian workers. The proposal further develops the international EPRES research. Research on precarious employment is impaired by a lack of longitudinal data. Also in Belgium no longitudinal working conditions survey exists that allows studying precarious employment, health and well-being. Only longitudinal data can enhance our understanding of causal mechanisms relating precarious employment and poor (mental) health. Our team started a longitudinal data collection on precarious employment and workers’ health, well-being and social situation. The main scientific objectives of the proposed project are threefold: (1) to sustain and expand this internationally unique longitudinal panel study in Belgium revolving around precarious employment (using the EPRES-scale) health and well-being and intermediary mechanisms; (2) To make advancements to the understanding of the pathways linking precarious employment to mental health, including the direction of causality, mediating and moderating mechanisms related to the work and social contexts, subjective experiences of precarity and the role of psychological capital; (3) To consider how (intersectional) memberships of social groups (i.e., gender, migrant status, class, educational level) might modify the relations between precarious employment and mental health.