Published in January 2020, Law et al. conducted a systematic review of nine studies that looked into the effect of work-related stressors on the mental health of young workers. The studies were conducted across the globe and their criteria for what constitutes a young person was <30 years or mean age of the sample <32 years.
We have summarised their findings below.
The cross-sectional studies demonstrated that adverse work conditions including working overtime, high job insecurity, low skill variety, lack of reward, job boredom, and low autonomy were associated with poor mental health of young workers. The longitude studies showed that high job demands, effort-reward imbalance and low job control were associated with poor mental health, in addition, low work support was related to poor mental health in men. Additionally, young workers are more vulnerable to workplace bullying, conflict supervisors and colleagues, more likely to be a victim of sexual harassment, and they perceive greater inequity in their treatment at work compared with older workers.
Law et al. suggests that workplace interventions and policy are required to improve the quality of work for young workers. An Australian study that found up to 13% of depression in working men and up to 17% of depression in working women could be prevented by reducing or eliminating exposure to work-related stressors (LaMontagne et al. 2008). Law et al. suggest that further research into this area must look at the quality of work, the way in which employment is gained for young people and the concept of emerging adulthood in relation to employment.
If you would like to read this study in further detail, visit
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00420-020-01516-7