Abstract
This chapter focuses on the difficulty locating work that is consistent with one’s needs, abilities, values, and interests and its consequence for workers’ mental health. More specifically, the concept of “volition” is entered in research on mental health consequences of working hours. Volition, in this context, means the degree to which workers are able to work their preferred number of working hours. To describe work hours that are not in line with one’s preferences, the concepts of under- and overemployment are used. Firstly, a short literature review on under- and overemployment conceptualizations and measures is given. Afterwards, three relevant empirical questions are answered: (1) whether the length of the working hours is a determinant for mental health or whether the involuntary nature of working hours is harmful to mental health; (2) whether family- and work-related resources are important for the health impact of under- and overemployment; and (3) whether a narrower interpretation of “volition,” comparing solely the discrepancy between actual and preferred working hours, is a determinant of health. In this chapter, it becomes clear that the conceptualization and measurements of under- and overemployment are extremely heterogeneous. Moreover, it is hours mismatch rather than the actual number of hours that is detrimental for health.
Deborah De Moortel is a FWO [PEGASUS]2 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow. Her research has received funding from the FWO and European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 665501
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De Moortel, D. (2020). Underemployment, Overemployment, and Mental Health. In: Theorell, T. (eds) Handbook of Socioeconomic Determinants of Occupational Health. Handbook Series in Occupational Health Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05031-3_5-1
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