Higher Education & Contemporary Working Conditions: a Comparative Approach

Social epidemiological research is dominated by a rather optimistic view on the mental health status of the higher educated. Despite the consistency of this observation, recent empirical research points to some counteracting evidence as elevated forms of mental health complaints have been found for several higher educational professions and these are often directly linked to their working conditions. This issue is mainly studied from a micro perspective with a strong focus on working conditions as such but little attention has been paid to the potential influence of macro-processes. This research tries to fill this gap by focusing on how labor market competition among the higher educated influences their working conditions and hence their mental health status. Analysis are based on a subsample (N = 8848), aged between 18 and 65, of the European Working Condition Survey (5th edition, 2015). Results, from 30 European countries, indicate that increasing labor market competition among the higher educated is related to an amelioration of the mental health status for the employed higher educated. Furthermore, we see that labor market competition moderates the relationship between certain working conditions and mental health. It has been shown, for example, that managerial quality or support becomes more important the more a country's labor market is characterized by competition among the higher educated. The results are discussed in the light of literature on the expansion of tertiary education.

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