Job Attributes and Mental Health: A Comparative Study of Sex Work and Hairstyling (original) (raw)
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Sex Work and Mental health - Briefing Paper
This briefing paper is based on a scoping literature review of existing research on mental health and sex work. It is part of a wider Wellcome Trust Seed Award project, which aims to understand how occupational health and safety differs between sex workers and other professions which are established as 'risky' because of the elevated prevalence of violence in the workplace and poor mental health. This document is directed to practitioners and service providers who work with sex workers and to researchers in the fields of sex work and mental health. Whilst this synthesis is by no mean exhaustive, it intends to: • introduce the main discourses and frameworks of analysis on sex work and mental health • identify the main factors that influence sex workers' mental well being • recommend best practice and policies to improve sex workers' mental health • suggest new directions for practice-oriented research on sex work and mental health Methods We conducted a literature search in six academic databases (Ovid Medline, Psych Info, Web of Science, Embase, CINAHL Plus, Global Health) and Google Scholar for quantitative and qualitative studies related to mental health and sex work. We also searched grey literature, documents written by sex workers, NGO and government reports. Aiming to critically address dominant discourses, we scoped all relevant literature, regardless of its methodological or ethical flaws. We also included research on mental health and trafficking into the sex industry, to contextualise the sex work literature and because the definition of trafficking is often unclear and/or not clearly differentiated from sex work in research. We anticipated that labour exploitation and coercion along with the overlap between trafficking and sex work would be highly influential on mental health. Overall, we retrieved 160 documents. We conducted similar literature searches to identify research on nursing and police as comparator 'risky' professions. Research approaches We identified three main approaches to mental health and sex work in the research literature:
The Impact of Sex Work on Psychological Wellbeing
International Journal of Scientific Research in Science and Technology, 2020
A controversial type of profession undertaken by women is sex work or prostitution, always subjected to regulation by law or convention. Sex workers are often stigmatized, marginalized, and criminalized by the societies in which they live. The profession of sex work may impact on the psychological wellbeing of the workers. This study aims to explore the impact of sex work on the psychological wellbeing of female sex workers. Qualitative design was used as the research design. The study used a purposive sample of five female sex workers and semi-structured interviews as the key method of data collection. The questions of the semi-structured interview were developed along the six dimensions of Ryff’s Psychological wellbeing scales: Autonomy, Environmental mastery, Personal growth, Positive relations with others, Purpose in life, and Self-acceptance. The data were analyzed along these six dimensions using the thematic analysis method. The findings of the study show that there is considerable impact of sex work on the psychological wellbeing of female sex workers. The impact is mostly negative and were especially true for Ryff’s dimensions of autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth and self-acceptance
Occupation and mental health in a national UK survey
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 2011
Objectives To measure the prevalence of common mental disorder (CMD) by occupation in a representative sample of Great Britain and to identify occupations with increased and decreased risk of CMD. Methods A cross-sectional interview-based survey was carried out including 5,497 working male and female respondents, 16-64 years from a stratified random survey of private households in Britain. Occupations were classified by the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) into four groups: major, sub-major, minor and constituent unit groups. Common Mental Disorder was measured by the Revised Clinical Interview Schedule. Results Major SOC groups with higher prevalence of common mental disorder included clerical and secretarial, sales, and personal and protective services whereas craft and related, 'other' professional occupations and plant and machine operatives had lower prevalence compared to 13% overall prevalence in all adults. In sub-major SOC groups managers and administrators, teaching professionals, clerical and secretarial, 'other' sales and personal service occupations had higher prevalence whereas many professional and skilled occupations had lower prevalence. Specific SOC unit groups with higher prevalence included primary and secondary teachers, welfare community, youth workers, security staff, waiters, bar staff, nurse auxiliaries and care assistants. General managers in government and large organizations (OR = 2.79, 95% CI 1.41-5.54), managers in transport and storing (OR = 2.44, 95% CI 1.18-5.03), buyers and mobile sales persons (OR = 2.48, 95% CI 1.09-5.60), sales occupations (NES) (OR = 2.78, 95% CI 1.25-6.19) and clerks (NES) (OR = 2.71, 95% CI 1.59-4.61) had increased risk of common mental disorder relative to specialist managers adjusting for social and financial factors and physical ill-health. Conclusions Occupations with higher risk of common mental disorder may be typified by high levels of job demands, especially emotional demands and lack of job security. The reasons why occupations have low rates of common mental disorder are varied and may include high levels of job discretion, good job training and clearly defined job tasks.
When it pays to be friendly: employment relationships and emotional labour in hairstyling
The Sociological Review, 2010
This article examines worker-client relationships in hairstyling. Data are drawn from interviews with 15 hourly-paid and 32 self-employed hairstylists and a self-administered survey. Relations of employment are found to be central to the deployment of emotional labour. Self-employed owner-operators are highly dependent on clients, rely on deep-acting, enact favours, and are prone to emotional breaking points when they fail to realise their ‘congealed service’. In contrast, hourly-paid stylists perform surface acting, resist unpaid favours and experience fewer breaking points. Methodologically this article demonstrates the importance of comparative employment relations analysis (CERA) for exposing the relationship between employment structures and labour process experiences.
SSM - Population Health
Precarious employment has been associated with poor mental health. Moreover, increasing labour market precariousness may cause individuals to feel 'locked-in', in non-desired workplaces or occupations, out of fear of not finding a new employment. This could be experienced as a 'loss of control', with similar negative health consequences. It is plausible that the extent to which being in a non-desired occupation (NDO) or being in precarious employment (PE) has a negative impact on mental health differs according to age group. We tested this hypothesis using data from 2331 persons, 18-34, 35-44, and 45-54 years old, who answered questionnaires
Recurrent Job Loss and Mental Health Among Women
Women & Health, 2009
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The Job Satisfaction of Female Sex Workers Working in Licensed Brothels in Victoria, Australia
The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 2011
Introduction. Previous studies have examined sex workers' attitudes to work but not their levels of job satisfaction compared with other occupations. Aim. The job satisfaction levels and standards of living of sex workers in licensed brothels in Victoria were compared with Australian women. Main Outcome Measures. Responses to a questionnaire that included questions about sex work and their "most likely alternative job." Survey data was compared with identical questions from the Households, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey. Methods. A structured survey was undertaken with sex workers in Victoria attending a a sexual health service. Results. Of the 112 sex workers who agreed to participate in the study, 85 (76%) completed the survey. The median years women had been working as sex workers was three (range 0.1-18). The main reasons women started sex work was because "they needed the money" (69%), were attracted to the flexible hours (44%) or had a particular goal in mind (43%). The two biggest concerns women had about sex work were their safety (65%) and the risk of sexually transmitted infections (65%). When compared with the median job satisfaction scores of Australian women working in sex workers' "most likely alternative jobs," 50% of sex workers reported a higher median satisfaction score for sex work in relation to hours worked, 47% in relation to flexibility, 43% in relation to total pay, 26% in relation to job security, 19% in relation to the work itself, and 25% in relation to overall job satisfaction. Conclusions. Women reported that they primarily do sex work for financial gain although a significant minority prefer it to other work they would be likely to do. These results should be interpreted in the context that the presence of personality disorders that are common among sex workers were not measured in this study.