Browsing by Author "Bolibar, Mireia"

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    Experiences of insecurity among non-standard workers across different welfare states: A qualitative cross-country study
    (2023) Bosmans, Kim; Vignola, Emilia F.; Alvarez-Lopez, Valentina; Julia, Mireia; Ahonen, Emily Q.; Bolibar, Mireia; Gutierrez-Zamora, Mariana; Ivarsson, Lars; Kvart, Signild; Muntaner, Carles; O'Campo, Patricia; Ruiz, Marisol E.; Vanerhagen, Kristian; Cuervo, Isabel; Davis, Letitia; Diaz, Ignacio; Escrig-Pinol, Astrid; Gunnj, Virginia; Lewchuk, Wayne; Ostergren, Per-Olof; Padrosa, Eva; Vilchez, David; Vives Vergara, Alejandra; Vos, Mattias; Zaupa, Alessandro; Bodin, Theo; Baron, Sherry L.; CEDEUS (Chile)
    In recent decades, economic crises and political reforms focused on employment flexibilization have increased the use of non-standard employment (NSE). National political and economic contexts determine how employers interact with labour and how the state interacts with labour markets and manages social welfare policies. These factors influence the prevalence of NSE and the level of employment insecurity it creates, but the extent to which a country's policy context mitigates the health influences of NSE is unclear. This study describes how workers experience insecurities created by NSE, and how this influences their health and well-being, in countries with different welfare states: Belgium, Canada, Chile, Spain, Sweden, and the United States. Interviews with 250 workers in NSE were analysed using a multiple-case study approach. Workers in all countries experienced multiple insecurities (e.g., income and employment insecurity) and relational tension with employers/clients, with negative health and well-being influences, in ways that were shaped by social inequalities (e.g., related to family support or immigration status). Welfare state differences were reflected in the level of workers' exclusion from social protections, the time scale of their insecurity (threatening daily survival or longer-term life planning), and their ability to derive a sense of control from NSE. Workers in Belgium, Sweden, and Spain, countries with more generous welfare states, navigated these insecurities with greater success and with less influence on health and well-being. Findings contribute to our understanding of the health and well-being influences of NSE across different welfare regimes and suggest the need in all six countries for stronger state responses to NSE. Increased investment in universal and more equal rights and benefits in NSE could reduce the widening gap between standard and NSE.
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    Precarious Employment and Stress: The Biomedical Embodiment of Social Factors. PRESSED Project Study Protocol
    (2021) Bolibar, Mireia; Belvis, Francesc Xavier; Jódar, Pere; Vives Vergara, Alejandra; Méndez, Fabrizio; Bartoll Roca, Xavier; Pozo, Óscar J.; Gómez Gómez, Alex; Padrosa, Eva; Benach, Joan; Julià, Mireia; CEDEUS (Chile)
    The PRESSED project aims to explain the links between a multidimensional measure of precarious employment and stress and health. Studies on social epidemiology have found a clear positive association between precarious employment and health, but the pathways and mechanisms to explain such a relationship are not well-understood. This project aims to fill this gap from an interdisciplinary perspective, integrating the social and biomedical standpoints to comprehensively address the complex web of consequences of precarious employment and its effects on workers' stress, health and well-being, including health inequalities. The project objectives are: (1) to analyze the association between multidimensional precarious employment and chronic stress among salaried workers in Barcelona, measured both subjectively and using biological indicators; (2) to improve our understanding of the pathways and mechanisms linking precarious employment with stress, health and well-being; and (3) to analyze health inequalities by gender, social class and place of origin for the first two objectives. The study follows a sequential mixed design. First, secondary data from the 2017 Survey on Workers and the Unemployed of Barcelona is analyzed (N = 1,264), yielding a social map of precarious employment in Barcelona that allows the contextualization of the scope and characteristics of this phenomenon. Drawing on these results, a second survey on a smaller sample (N = 255) on precarious employment, social precariousness and stress is envisaged. This study population is also asked to provide a hair sample to have their levels of cortisol and its related components, biomarkers of chronic stress, analyzed. Third, a sub-sample of the latter survey (n = 25) is selected to perform qualitative semi-structured interviews. This allows going into greater depth into how and why the experience of uncertainty, the precarization of living conditions, and the degradation of working conditions go hand-in-hand with precarious employment and have an impact on stress, as well as to explore the potential role of social support networks in mitigating these effects.