foodconsumer.org: Stress from job loss increases health risks

Stress from job loss increases health risks
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admin on 05/10/2009 15:48:00
 
Sunday May 10, 2009 (foodconsumer.org) -- Job loss happens and during economic
downturns they have far reaching affects – not only on the breadwinner who’s
lost the job, but on his or her family members as well.
A new study conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation underscores just how
devastating losing one’s source of income can be. Of those surveyed, people
who lost their jobs through circumstances beyond their control (think GM and the
banking industry), are 54-percent more likely to report that their health is
fair to poor. In addition, those with preexisting health conditions become
83-percent more likely to develop a condition.
The stress from job loss has a ripple effect through the family and into the
school room. Dr. Glen Elder, University of North Carolina, told the New York
Times that a parent’s job loss profoundly affects the child’s performance at
school, particularly if the job loss causes marital strife at home. Adolescent
boys who come from families that suffer sudden unemployment are more likely to
become delinquent, while girls are more likely to turn their stress inward, in
the form of depression.
This is nothing new; Dr. Elder discovered through research that during the
Depression, the harsh, economic reality people experienced led to a
“deterioration” of child rearing practices. Discipline became more punitive,
and physical punishment was more likely to be used on a daily basis.
Floyd Norris, chief financial correspondent to the New York Times and the
International Herald Tribune speculates that stress levels may be reaching
debilitating proportions because losing a job in the current economy is a scary
proposition. Many workers do not have expect to recover those jobs once the
economy recovers. In the case of plant closings and corporate takeovers, simply
riding out the storm until it clears isn’t a realistic strategy.
The powerlessness employees feel in such situations is, indeed, devastating.
And, as the Institute’s study clearly reveals, this lack of control takes its
toll on the physical body.
(By Rachel Stockton and edited by Will Levine)