Discussion Paper Series

University of Tokyo

Institute of Social Science
Panel Survey
東京大学社会科学研究所 パネル調査プロジェクト
ディスカッションペーパーシリーズ

Do Job-related Concerns Matter among Young Adults
in Japan? From the Life Course Perspective

Yusuke TSUKADA（University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa）

April 2021
No.139東京大学社会科学研究所
INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYOInstitute of Social Sciences
University of Tokyo
Panel Survey Project Discussion Paper Series No. 139
April 2021

Do Job-related Concerns Matter among Young Adults in Japan?
From the Life Course Perspective

Yusuke Tsukada(University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa)This research was supported by KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Specially Promoted
Research (Grant Numbers 18H05204) and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S)(numbers 18103003 and 22223005) and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)(number 25381122) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). The
research support in conducting the panel surveys from the Institute of Social Science,
University of Tokyo, and the Outsourcing Company is gratefully acknowledged.
Permission to use the panel data is obtained from the Research Planning Committee of
the Japanese Life Course Panel Surveys.

Do Job-related Concerns Matter among Young Adults in Japan?
From the Life Course Perspective

Yusuke Tsukada(University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa)Abstract
This study investigates the effect of persistent job-related concerns on psychologicaldistress among Japanese young adults to contribute to a perspective on the relationshipbetween work and mental health. Besides, the study aims to identify which job-related
concerns are more likely to affect psychological distress for young adults in Japan. The
present study uses wave 8 (2011) and wave 11 (2014) from the Japanese Life Course
Panel Survey of High School Graduates to focus on the effect of persistence of stressors
on young adults’ mental health. The results confirm that the longer-term exposure to jobrelated concerns increases psychological distress among Japanese young adults. In termsof long-term exposure to job-related concerns, the results also point out that persistentconcerns about their interpersonal relationships at the workplace impact higher levels of
psychological distress among the three types of persistent job-related concerns for young
adults in Japan.

11. Introduction
Most workers feel stressed regarding various job-related concerns such as lack of job
security, financial strain, and problems with interpersonal relationships at work. For
example, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (1999) reported that
40% of workers felt overly stressed about their job in the United States. Can the stressfrom job concerns have a long-term and harmful impact on mental health?
Previous studies found that these job-related concerns, including lack of job
security (Burgard et al., 2009; Ferrie, 2001; Kachi et al., 2017; Kalil et al., 2009; Meltzer
et al., 2010; Watson & Osberg, 2018), financial strain (Krause et al.,1991; Selenko &Batinic, 2011; Sinclair et al., 2010), and interpersonal relationship problems at work suchas problems with coworkers and boss (Frone, 2000; Inoue & Kawakami, 2010) areassociated with higher levels of self-rated psychological distress. However, most studies
were based on the United States and European population, and there are only a few studies
based on the Asian population or the Japanese population (e.g., Inoue & Kawakami 2010;
Kachi et al., 2017). Moreover, although the adverse relationship between job-related
concerns and psychological distress has been established well, there was little research
investigating the effect of long-term exposure to job-related concerns on psychologicaldistress (Burgard et al., 2009), which is a limitation of the literature. Persistent exposure
to the stressors might be more harmful to mental health than temporary exposure (Burgard
et al., 2009). Therefore, this paper aims to examine the effect of persistent job-related
concerns on psychological distress in Japan by using longitudinal data. In particular, thispaper focuses on young adults (their middle-late 20s) in Japan because the period during
the transition to adulthood is a critical stage of occurrence of job-related concerns thatmight cause psychological distress (Grant & Potenza, 2010).
Workplace Situations in Japan
Japan remains notorious for its “workaholic” citizens who are expected to work
long hours (Kanai, 2009). In addition, the economic crisis or the collapse of the bubble
economy in 1991 resulted in a shift in the Japanese labor market where companies became
highly competitive for survival. The competition led to a significant increase in nonregular employment (e.g., part-time employment, employment on a lease, and temporary2

employment) and restructuring of full-time, regular employees into the non-regular
employment status or layoffs in some cases (Kanai, 2009; Kanai & Wakabayashi, 2004).
Thus, many Japanese young adults are concerned with economic hardship, getting a job,and keeping it. Therefore, more research is needed on job-related concerns such as job
insecurity and financial strain harming young adults’ mental health over time in theJapanese context.
Besides, in Japan, interpersonal relationships in the workplace are a crucial
stressor for workers. Based on the survey for workers, 31.9 % of young adult workers felt
stress about their interpersonal relationship in the workplace among those who felt strong
stress in their workplace (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 2018a). In thissituation, some studies tried to understand whether interpersonal relationships at work
harm workers’ mental health (Fujiwara et al., 2003; Inoue & Kawakami, 2010; Otaki,
2019; Tsuno et al., 2009). But those studies failed to examine the temporal order of therelationship between interpersonal relationships at work and mental health and figure out
the long-term exposure effect of interpersonal relationship problems at work on mental
health. Therefore, more studies are needed on interpersonal relationships at work
damaging young adults’ mental health over time in the Japanese context.
In summary, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of persistent jobrelated concerns on psychological distress among Japanese young adults by using
longitudinal data to contribute to a perspective on the relationship between work andmental health. Besides, this paper aims to identify which job-related concerns are more
likely to affect psychological distress for young adults in Japan.
Research Questions
1. Is there a relationship between job-related concerns and psychological distress inJapan?
2. Does long-term exposure (persistence) to job-related concerns predict higher
levels of psychological distress among young adults in Japan?
3. If so, which job-related concern have the most influence on young adults’
psychological distress in Japan?

3

2. Literature Review
Theoretical Frameworks
This paper mainly uses two theoretical frameworks: the stress process model (Pearlin,
1989; Pearlin et al., 1981) and the life course perspective (Elder et al., 2004). According
to the stress process model, job-related concerns are regarded as chronic strains in thesense that such concerns are not an acute or single event generating stress but enduring
or persisting problems in one’s daily life and related to the social role of work (Pearlin,
1989; Pearlin et al., 1981). Both acute life events and chronic strains are associated withpsychological distress, but chronic strain has a greater impact on psychological distressthan an acute or single event (McGonagle & Kessler, 1990; Turner et al., 1995). Thus, it
is important to understand the effect of job-related concerns as chronic strain and theextent to which they are harmful for mental health.
The life course perspective is also a useful theoretical framework to identify thepersistence and timing of chronic strains on mental health in one’s life (Elder et al., 2004).
The life course perspective aims to understand developmental processes by considering along-term view. Most previous studies examined the relationship stressors and mental
health outcomes by using cross-sectional data or the same point in time. However,considering the long-term perspective helps us see the persisting effect of social strain or
stressors in one’s life. Using longitudinal data, I will be able to see the duration or
persistence of the stressor on one’s life for a certain period of time.
In the early adulthood stage, individuals face a variety of transitional problems byleaving their parents’ home and gaining financial independence through employment(Grant & Potenza, 2010), which can have implications for their mental health. They canalso transition into marriage (the average age at marriage in Japan is 31.1 years old formen and 29.4 years old for women; see Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 2018b)
or cohabitation while they start working. At their work, they would experience different
duties and tasks assigned, and thus they are likely to have psychological distressconcerning job-related concerns because their lives are centered around their work life in
the early adulthood stage.

4

Overall, both the stress process model and life course perspectives enable us tocomprehensively examine the lasting relationship between job-related concerns andpsychological distress among young adults in Japan.
Mental Health and Young Adults in Japan
Symptoms of depression are common in Japan and on the rise. During the twodecade period, the number of people with depressive symptoms in 2017 was about threetimes as much as in 1996 in Japan (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 2011).
Moreover, during a 15 year-period from 2004 to 2019, the number of young people withdepressive symptoms in their teens and 20s increased about three times (Japan
Productivity Center, 2019). This recent increase of young people with depressive
symptoms has become a serious social issue and a public health problem in Japan. Iwama
argued (2013) that this issue was closely related with young employees in Japanesecompanies and more than thirty percent of newly employed young people tended to quit
their jobs even though the Japanese companies have lifelong employment orientation.
Thus, it is important to examine young adults’ mental health in Japan and theirexperiences with stress in the workplace to improve this situation.
Job-related Concerns and Psychological Distress
As a chronic strain, job-related concerns can include job insecurity, financial
strain, and interpersonal problems at work. Previous studies have indicated that job
insecurity has a variety of negative health outcomes, such as anxiety about future job oran unstable feeling of life (Ferrie, 2001; Kachi et al., 2017; Meltzer et al., 2010; Watson& Osberg, 2018) And the stress of perceived insufficiency of the financial situation
contributes to psychological distress such as a sense of financial struggle in daily life ora sense of having an uncomfortable life (Krause et al., 1991; Selenko & Batinic, 2011;
Sinclair et al., 2010). There is also evidence that interpersonal relationships at work could
harm mental health, such as lack of good communication with co-workers or superiors(Frone, 2000; Inoue & Kawakami, 2010). In summary, these studies were cross-sectionalso no conclusions could be made about causality.
Lack of Job Security and Psychological Distress5

Lack of job security is one of the main job-related concerns for workers. Job loss
or unemployment is a stressful event harming one’s mental health (Brand, 2015; Dew etal., 1991), but job insecurity might be regarded as more significant in the sense that it
generates enduring and lasting stress because job insecurity creates a sense of anxiety
about employment risk. Previous literature indicated that job insecurity was associatedwith poor mental health (Kachi et al., 2017; Meltzer et al. 2010; Watson & Osberg, 2018).
Moreover, a cross-sectional study found that job insecurity was strongly related tonegative mental health outcomes, even controlling the effect of socioeconomic anddemographic variables (Meltzer et al., 2010). However, most studies have used crosssectional data, and thus could not grasp the effect of long-term exposure to job insecurity
in one’s life. Among a few studies on the long-term exposure to unemployment,
Mossakowski (2009) pointed out that a longer duration of involuntary unemployment was
associated with a higher level of depressive symptoms among young adults in the UnitedStates by using national longitudinal data. Although it is important to recognize the effectof long-term exposure to unemployment on depressive symptoms, it is also essential toconsider the effect of persistent job insecurity for employed young adults, especiallybecause they are in the initial states of status attainment and likely at the lower level ofthe hierarchy of power in their workplace. Thus, as one of this paper’s purposes, it
investigates the effect of persistent job insecurity on psychological distress among young
adults in Japan.
Financial Strain and Psychological DistressAccording to Sinclair and his colleagues (2010), there are two aspects of financial
strain: objective and subjective. Sinclair mentioned the differences between objective
aspects and subjective aspects in his work. The objective aspect of the strain refers to “theobjective inability to meet current financial needs,” while the subjective aspect of thestrain refers to “the perceived inadequacy of the financial situation” (Sinclair et al., 2010,p. 2). The objective aspect of the strain certainly has negative impacts on mental health.
However, this paper focuses on the subjective aspect of financial strain. When individuals
perceive the insufficiency of their financial situation, they feel the strain. This paper
investigates the effect of one’s relative difficulties financially on psychological distress.
Financial strain is strongly associated with adverse mental health outcomes (Krause et al.,6

1991; Selenko & Batinic, 2011). The study on the relationship between financial strain
and mental health outcomes has been established. However, these studies did not pay
attention to the long-term exposure effect of financial strain in one’s life by using crosssectional data. By using longitudinal data, some studies examined the relationshipbetween long-term exposure to the socioeconomic environment and individuals’ general
health (Mattherws et al., 1999). But there are only a few studies on the long-term exposure
effect of subjective financial strain on psychological distress among young adults(Shippee et al., 2012). Therefore, this paper investigates the effect of persistent financial
strain on psychological distress to advance our understanding.
Interpersonal Relationships at Work and Psychological Distress
Interpersonal relationships can be stressors that damage mental health (Frone,
2000; Inoue & Kawakami, 2010; Tsuno et al., 2009), although they are often regarded asresources (e.g., social support and social integration). Moreover, negative interpersonal
relationships might have a greater impact on individuals’ lives than positive interpersonal
relationships (Berscheid & Reis, 1998). Specifically, Frone (2000) indicated thatinterpersonal conflict with co-workers caused depressive symptoms as well as low selfesteem and somatic symptoms. Previous literature confirmed the relationship between
interpersonal relationships at work and mental health outcomes, but most studies failed
to grasp the causal direction between interpersonal conflict and negative mental healthoutcomes by using cross-sectional data. Moreover, we do not know whether long-term
exposure to bad interpersonal relationships causes a higher level of subsequent
psychological distress. Thus, this paper examines the effect of persistent concerns about
interpersonal relationships at work on psychological distress.
Summary and Hypotheses.
As stated in the preceding discussions, studies on the relationship between jobrelated concerns (e.g., job insecurity, financial strain, and bad interpersonal relationships)
and negative mental health outcomes have been developed and established. However,there are few studies dealing with long-term exposure to job-related concerns andpsychological distress using longitudinal data. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate
the effect of long-term exposure to job-related concerns on psychological distress. Before

7examining the long-term exposure effect, I need to confirm whether there is a statisticallysignificant relationship between job-related concerns and psychological distress in thissample. Hence, it is hypothesized whether or not each type of job-related concern impacts
psychological distress for young adults in Japan. Therefore, this paper conducts crosssectional analyses first from hypothesis 1 to 3. Hypothesis 1: concerns about job
insecurity are related to higher levels of psychological distress among young adults inJapan. H2: concerns about financial strain are linked with greater psychological distressamong young adults in Japan. H3: concerns about bad interpersonal relationships areassociated with psychological distress among young adults in Japan. Furthermore, thispaper analyzes the lasting effect of job-related concerns on psychological distress foryoung adults in Japan after investigating cross-sectional relationships to establish theassociations. H4: individuals who have persistent concerns about job insecurity
experience higher levels of psychological distress than those without any concerns or withfewer concerns about job insecurity among young adults in Japan. H5: individuals who
have persistent concerns about financial strain experience higher levels of psychologicaldistress than those without any concerns or with fewer concerns about financial strain
among young adults in Japan. H6: individuals who have persistent concerns about theirinterpersonal relationships at work experience higher levels of psychological distress thanthose without any concerns or with fewer concerns about their interpersonal relationships
among young adults in Japan.
3. Method
Data Description
This study uses data from the Japanese Life Course Panel Survey of High School
Graduates (JLPS-H), conducted by the Institute of Social Science at the University ofTokyo. The first purpose of this survey is to investigate the unequal social circumstancesin which Japanese youths live. Moreover, the second purpose of the survey is to examine
the process of youths’ independence, their relationship with their parents, and the family
formation in the Japanese context. The survey has been conducted with the same
respondents annually since 2004 in order to grasp changes in individual behavior andconsciousness. This study used two waves (wave 8 and wave 11) from 16 waves. At wave

8

1, the respondents’ age was 17 or 18 so that the respondents’ age was 25-26 (wave 8) and
28-29 (wave 11). Waves 9 and 10 did not include the relevant variables about job-related
concerns. Like other countries, in the Japanese context, the middle-late of twenties is theprocess of transition to adulthood. But Japan is a more normative country because mostyouths get their first job by 22 years old, which is the age of college graduation. young
adults who are around 25 to before 30 years old could be most likely to be struggling with
job-related concerns due to the Japanese normative society, so this study focuses on these
two waves (wave 8 and 11). The first survey (self-administered survey), wave 1, wasconducted with 7,563 high school graduate samples of 101 high schools in four
prefectures out of 47 prefectures by considering the variation of college entrance rate andemployment rate. The following surveys were conducted by mail and the retention rate
decreased. The average number of respondents per subsequent wave was around 500. The
sample size of this paper is 328. Although this is not representative of the population, it
is longitudinal. It can investigate youths’ life course processes in Japan and the temporalordering of job-related concerns and psychological distress, bringing us closer tounderstanding the social causation of mental health disparities among young adults inJapan.
Measures
Psychological DistressThis study measures psychological distress with five survey items. The Five-item
version of the Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5) is a widely used measurement (Berwick
et al., 1991 Rumpf et al., 2001). The respondents were asked, “During the past 30 days,
about how often did you experience...?”: (1) feeling nervous, (2) feeling profoundly
depressed, (3) feeling calm, (4) feeling blue, (5) feeling joy. The frequency of each item
ranges from (1) always, (2) often, (3) sometimes, (4) rarely, (5) never. The items of calmand joy were reverse coded to be the same direction as other items. Then, the five items
are summed into one scale to measure psychological distress. The scale ranges from 5(lower levels of psychological distress) to 25 (higher levels of psychological distress).
Job-related Concerns

9As discussed before, this paper deals with three types of job-related concerns
consisting of concerns on job insecurity, financial strain, and interpersonal relationshipproblems at work. Concerns about job insecurity were assessed with the following
question, “Are you concerned with losing your job/ not getting a job?” Then, respondents
were asked to report how often they feel concerned about it: (1) often, (2) sometimes, (3)hardly, (4) never. I recoded (1) or (2) into a dummy variable (1=yes, I feel concerned),
which meant that (3) or (4) were regarded as the reference group.
Concerns about financial strain were measured with the following question, “Are
you concerned with current income?” Then, respondents were asked to report how often
they feel concerned about it: (1) often, (2) sometimes, and (3) never. I recoded (1) or (2)into a dummy variable (1=yes, I feel concerned), which meant that (3) was regarded as
the reference group.
Concerns about interpersonal relationships at work were assessed with thefollowing question, “Are you concerned with interpersonal relationships at work?” Then,
respondents were asked to report how often they feel concerned about it: (1) often, (2)sometimes, and (3) never. I recoded (1) or (2) into a dummy variable (1=yes, I feelconcerned), which meant that (3) was regarded as the reference group.
Persistent Job-related Concerns
This paper aims to investigate the effect of the duration of exposure to job-related
concerns on psychological distress In terms of job insecurity, if the respondents indicateda sense of job insecurity (in the above measurement of job insecurity) in both wave 8 andwave 11, they were regarded as exposed to long-term job insecurity, which was recodedas (1) persistent concerns about job insecurity. If the respondents indicated a sense of job
insecurity in wave 8 and did not indicate a sense of job insecurity in wave 11, they wereregarded as individuals who had job insecurity, but not anymore, which was recoded as(2) concerns about job insecure to no concerns about job insecure. On the other hand, if
the respondents did not indicate a sense of job insecurity in wave 8 and indicated a senseof job insecurity in wave 11, they were regarded as individuals who had job security but
have job insecurity now, which was recoded as (3) no concerns about job insecure toconcerns about job insecure. Finally, if the respondents indicated a sense of job insecurity
in neither wave 8 nor wave 11, they were regarded as individuals who had job security,

10

which was recoded as (4) no exposure to concerns about job insecurity. And in theanalyses, persistent job security was the reference category.
In the same way, financial strain and interpersonal relationships at work wererecoded. Regarding financial strain, (1) persistent concerns about financial strain, (2)concerns about financial strain to no concerns about financial strain, (3) no concerns about
financial strain to concerns about financial strain, and (4) no exposure to concerns about
financial strain. About bad interpersonal relationships, (1) persistent concerns about
interpersonal relationships at work, (2) concerns about relationships to no concerns about
relationships, (3) no concerns about relationships to concerns about relationships, and (4)no exposure to concerns about interpersonal relationships at work.
Control variables
Gender was dummy-coded to represent as female was 1, while male served as thereference category. Two dummy-variables measured education. High school graduates
served as the reference category, and junior (2 year) college graduates and college
graduates are dummy-coded. Working status was dummy-coded to represent current
working people in the paid labor force was 1, while not currently working = 0. In termsof marital status, married people served as the reference category, and never-marriedpeople and widows were dummy-coded. Monthly income ranged from (0) no income (34)340000 JPY and more per month (about $3400 per month).
Analytic Strategy
To analyze the data, I first ran a descriptive statistical analysis to describe thesample. Then, Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression models were used to test my
hypotheses. First, this paper analyzed the relationship between each job-related concern(at wave 11) and psychological distress cross-sectionally at ages 28 - 29 (wave 11).
Second, the analysis also examined the relationship between each persistent job-related
concern (created by wave 8 and wave 11) and psychological distress at ages 28 - 29 (wave11) to contribute to the literature gap of not focusing on the long-term effect of job-related
concerns on psychological distress.
4. Result11Descriptive Statistics
Table 1 illustrated univariate findings based on descriptive statistics of all variables inthis study. The average level of psychological distress was 13.35 (range = 5 to 25).
Regarding job-related concerns, the respondents’ biggest job-related concern was afinancial strain, and the second biggest job-related concern was interpersonal
relationships at work. Then lastly, the smallest job-related concern was job insecurity. In
the sample, 78 % of the respondents felt concerned about financial strain. And 66 % of
the respondents felt concerned about their interpersonal relationships at work. Then, 43 %of the respondents felt concerned about their job insecurity. Thus, we could see thevariation of the respondents’ concerns about their job among the three job-related
concerns.
In terms of persistent job-related concerns, there were some continuities between
wave 8 and wave 11. Those respondents who did not feel concerned about job insecurity
at wave 8 were more likely not to feel concerned about their job insecurity at wave 11.
Besides, the respondents who felt concerned about their job insecurity at wave 8 werelikely to feel concerned about their job insecurity at wave 11. Almost a third (32%) of the
respondents were self-reported persistent concerns about job insecurity. And 43 % of the
respondents do not have any concerns about job insecurity. There were some respondents
who were categorized as either from concerns about job insecurity to no concerns about
job insecurity (14 % of the respondents) or from no concerns about job insecurity toconcerns about job insecurity (12 % of the respondents).
In terms of financial strain, 71 % of the respondents were categorized as
individuals who had persistent concerns about the financial strain. In this sample, most of
the young adults continued to be concerned about their financial issues. On the other hand,
only 10 % of the respondents were categorized as individuals who were not exposed to
any concerns about financial strains during the period from wave 8 to wave 11. There
were respondents who were categorized as either from concerns about financial strain tono concerns about financial strain (13 % of the respondents) or no concerns about
financial strain to concerns about financial strain (6 % of the respondents).
Regarding interpersonal relationships at work, about half of the respondents werecategorized as individuals who had persistent concerns about interpersonal relationships
at work (55 % of the respondents). Other categories were similar percentages. Sixteen

12percent of the respondents were categorized as individuals who were not exposed to any
concerns about their interpersonal relationships at work. While 17 % of the respondents
were categorized as from concerns about interpersonal relationships to no concerns about
interpersonal relationships, 11 % of the respondents were categorized as from no concerns
about interpersonal relationships to concerns about interpersonal relationships.
In this sample (wave 11), 69% of the respondents were female. Regarding
educational attainment, 17 % of the respondents were high school graduates, 36 % of the
respondents had associate degrees, and 47 % of the respondents had bachelor’s degrees.
Eighty-eight percent of the respondents were currently working. About marital status,
41 % of the respondents were married, 58 % of the respondents have never been married,and 1 % of the respondents were widows. And the average monthly income was 15.74,
which meant around $1574 per month.
[Table 1 is inserted here]
Job-related Concerns and Psychological Distress
Table 2 illustrated the OLS regression analyses to examine the relationshipbetween job-related concerns and psychological distress. models 1 to 3 tested the effectof each job-related concern on psychological distress, which was a cross-sectional
analysis to confirm previous literature’s discussions. Model 1 tested hypothesis 1 thatstated whether concerns about job insecurity were associated with levels of psychologicaldistress among young adults in Japan. Those who felt concerned about their job insecurity
tended to experience significantly higher levels of psychological distress (b= 2.077,
p< .001), which supported H1. In model 2, those who felt concerned about their financial
strain tended to have higher levels of psychological distress (b= 1.725, p< .001), which
supported H2. Model 3 analyzed the relationship between concern about theirinterpersonal relationships at work and psychological distress (hypothesis 3). Those who
felt concerned about their interpersonal relationships at work were likely to have higher
levels of psychological distress (b= 2.329, p< .001), which supported H3.
Model 4 investigated which job-related concerns had a greater impact on
psychological distress than the other job-related concerns by including all job-related
concerns into one model. On the one hand, concerns about job insecurity (b= 1.683,

13

p< .001) and concerns about interpersonal relationships at work (b= 1.913, p< .001)
contributed to increasing psychological distress. On the other hand, it turned out that there
was no statistically significant relationship between concerns about the financial strain
and psychological distress when including all job-related concerns variables. This result
indicated that concerns about job insecurity and interpersonal relationships at work may
mediate or explain the relationship between concerns about financial strain andpsychological distress. Supplementary analyses not shown confirmed that financial strain
was significantly associated with the other job-related concerns as dependent variables,
which is further evidence for mediation. As a sensitivity analysis, the variance inflation
factors were low (< 1.3) for the multivariate regressions that included all of the job
concerns in the model. Comparing the effect of concerns about job insecurity on
psychological distress with concerns about interpersonal relationships at work, concerns
about the interpersonal relationship (Beta=.224) had a somewhat greater impact on higher
levels of psychological distress than concerning job insecurity (Beta=.205).

As a

noteworthy result consistent with prior research on mental health (Marcussen, 2005),
those respondents who have never been married tended to have greater psychologicaldistress compared to the married respondents in all models (b= 1.457, p< .001 for model
1, b= 1.752, p< .001 for model 2, b= 1.453, p< .001 for model 3, and b= 1.155, p< .01 formodel 4).
[Table 2 is inserted here]
Table 3 showed the OLS regression analyses of the relationship between persistentjob-related concerns and psychological distress. Each analysis tested the effect of eachpersistent job-related concern on psychological distress from model 1 to model 3. These
analyses examined duration inspired by the life course perspective and using two waves(8 and 11) of data. In model 1, hypothesis 4 was examined. Those respondents who had
persistent concern about job insecurity tended to experience higher levels of
psychological distress than those without any concerns about job insecurity (b= 2.016,
p< .001). Besides, those who had not been concerned about their job insecurity, but they
began to feel concerns about their job insecurity later were likely to have higher levels of
psychological distress compared to those without any concerns about job insecurity (b=141.713, p< .001). These results indicated that hypothesis 4 was supported. In comparison,long-term exposure to concerns about job insecurity (persistent job insecurity) had astronger effect on higher levels of psychological distress than those who became
concerned (Beta=.237 for persistent concerns about job insecurity, Beta=.141 for thosestarting being concerned about job insecurity).
Model 2 tested hypothesis 5 that expected that individuals who had persistentconcerns about financial strain would experience higher levels of psychological distressthan those without any concerns about financial strain among young adults in Japan. Only
those who had persistent concerns about financial strain tended to have higher levels of
psychological distress than those without any concerns about financial issues (b= 2592,
p< .001), which supported H5.
Model 3 investigated hypothesis 6 that expected that individuals who had
persistent concerns about their interpersonal relationships would experience higher levelsof psychological distress than those without any concerns about their interpersonal
relationships among young adults in Japan. Those respondents who had persistentconcerns about their interpersonal relationships at work tended to experience higher levelsof psychological distress than those without any concerns about their interpersonal
relationships at work (b= 2.758, p< .001). Moreover, those who had not been concerned
about their interpersonal relationships at work, but they began to feel concerns about theirinterpersonal relationships at work later were likely to have higher levels of psychologicaldistress compared to those without any concerns about their interpersonal relationships atwork (b= 1.819, p< .05). These results showed that hypothesis 6 was supported.
Comparing between those with persistent concerns about their interpersonal relationships
at work and those who began to feel concerned about their interpersonal relationships atwork, longer-term exposure to concerns about their interpersonal relationships at work
had a greater effect on higher levels of psychological distress (Beta=.346 for those withpersistent concerns about their interpersonal relationships at work, Beta=.143 for thosestarting being concerned about their interpersonal relationships at work).
Model 4 analyzed the relationship between all the persistent job-related concernsand psychological distress by including all variables. Even when including all persistentjob-related concerns variables in one model, all three types of job-related concerns had
effects on higher levels of psychological distress (b= 1.420, p< .01 for persistent concern

15

about job insecurity, b= 1.602, p< .05 for persistent financial strain, b= 2.140, p< .01 for
persistent concern about their interpersonal relationships at work). In addition, the model
also analyzed which persistent job-related concern was more likely to have an impact onhigher levels of psychological distress. The results indicated that persistent concern about
interpersonal relationships at work was the most influential factor predicting higher levelsof psychological distress (Beta=.167 for those with persistent concerns about their job
insecurity, Beta=.183 for those with persistent financial strain, Beta=.268 for those withpersistent concerns about their interpersonal relationships at work). As another interesting
result, those respondents who have never been married tended to have higher levels of
psychological distress compared to the married respondents in all models (b= 1.415,
p< .01 for model 1, b= 1.540, p< .01 for model 2, b= 1.405, p< .01 for model 3, and b=
1.098, p< .05 for model 4).
[Table 3 is inserted here]
5. Discussion and Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of long-term exposure to job-related
concerns on psychological distress among young adults in Japan. My findings add to priorfindings which job-related concerns and increased psychological distress (Burgard et al.,2009; Ferrie, 2001; Frone, 2000; Inoue & Kawakami, 2010; Kachi et al., 2017; Kalil etal., 2009; Krause et al., 1991; Meltzer et al., 2010; Selenko & Batinic, 2011; Sinclair etal., 2010; Watson & Osberg, 2018) and are a new contribution to the literature in the sensethat my result confirmed that longer-term exposure to job-related concerns, the higher
levels of psychological distress among Japanese young adults. By using longitudinal data,
this study advances our knowledge of the relationship between work and mental healthover time from the life course perspective.
My cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses have shown that job-related
concerns have an impact on higher levels of psychological distress. As the previous
literature indicated, this paper also confirmed the relationship between each type of jobrelated concern and psychological distress. Interestingly, the results indicated thatconcerns about interpersonal relationships at work had the most impact on higher levels

16

of psychological distress among the three types of job-related concerns for young adults
in Japan.
Using the life course perspective, my longitudinal analyses highlighted that thelonger the exposure to job concerns, the higher the levels of psychological distress. In
both concerns about job insecurity and interpersonal relationships at work, the change
from no-concerns about job insecurity/interpersonal relationships to concerns about job
insecurity/interpersonal relationships generated psychological distress, but to a lesser
extent than those of persistent concerns. In contrast, that was not the case for financial
strain.
In terms of long-term exposure to job-related concerns, the results also pointed
out that persistent concerns about their interpersonal relationships at work had the mostimpact on higher levels of psychological distress among the three types of persistent jobrelated concerns for young adults in Japan. Like the cross-sectional analyses, concern
about interpersonal relationships at work was the most influential factor for psychologicaldistress among the three types of job-related concerns.
As another interesting finding, marital status consistently had an impact on
psychological distress. Those who have never been married tend to have higher levels of
psychological distress than those who are married in both cross-sectional analyses andlongitudinal analyses. Japanese society is normative in terms of transition to adulthood.
The age of this sample (28-29 years of age) is a socially-expected marriage age in Japan.
Moreover, previous literature has indicated that being married reduces psychologicaldistress (Marcussen, 2005). Marital status can be a recourse such as social support or evenfinancial support. Therefore, unmarried people tend to experience higher levels of
psychological distress compared to married people in general.
This paper demonstrated job-related concerns predict psychological distressamong young adults in Japan, and revealed that longer-term exposure to job-related
concerns were related to the highest levels of psychological distress. Most prior studies
depended on cross-sectional analysis, but, in this paper, longitudinal analyses were
performed to bring us closer to showing the social causation of psychological distress byusing the life course perspective.
Certainly, this paper has some limitations. First, the sample size is relatively small,so that it might not be generalized for the population. However, this data set is designed

17

for longitudinal analyses, and it is important to examine the causal direction by making
most of these data. Second, the result may be biased because the proportion of women
was larger than that of men in the sample, and interpersonal relationships at work may be
more important for female employees than males. Future research needs to explore
gender differences in job concerns and mental health. Third, there is a limitation of
measurement. All of the job-related concerns were measured with one survey item. It may
not be sufficient to measure the nature of each job-related concern. Future qualitative
research needs to examine the different aspects of each of these concerns to inform thecreation of multidimensional scales of job concerns.
In the situation that young people’s mental problems have become social issues
in contemporary Japanese society, this paper pointed out that work concerns and marital
status were crucial matters in the light of the mental health of Japanese young adults. By
focusing on job-related concerns, we could see what matters for Japanese young adults
and their psychological well-being. Future research could explore the organizational,social, and cultural factors in the Japanese working environment which might increase
young workers’ concerns about work life. By doing so, we may identify crucial factors todecrease work-related concerns and thus, may reduce psychological distress and protect
mental health.
As the results have shown, the longer the exposures to job-related concerns, thehigher the levels of psychological distress. As implications for workplace policy, thepaper suggests that it should be important to have working counselling or consulting
systems for young workers to take advantage of when they may have job-related concerns
in early stages before they continue long enough to do harm their mental health. In
conclusion, considering the persistent and long-term exposures to job-related concern it
is important for more studies to examine mental health issues over time by using alongitudinal data in Japan and other countries.

18

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22

List of Tables

Table 1. Descriptive Statistics(Proportion/Mean and Standard Deviation)
Means/
Proportions

Psychological Distress
Job-Related Concerns
Job Insecurity
Financial Strain
Interpersonal Relationships
Persistent Job-Related Concerns
Job Insecurity
Persistent Concerns
Concerns to No concerns
No concerns to Concerns
No Exposure to Concerns
Financial Strain
Persistent Concerns
Concerns to No concerns
No concerns to Concerns
No Exposure to Concerns
Interpersonal Relationships
Persistent Concerns
Concerns to No concerns
No concerns to Concerns
No Exposure to Concerns
Control Varibles
Female (1=yes)
High School Graduates (1=yes)
Associate Degree (1=yes)
Over Bachelor's Degrees (1=yes)
Working status (1=working)
Married (1=yes)
Never Married (1=yes)
Widow (1=yes)
Monthly Income
N

SD

13.35

3.97

.43
.78
.66

.49
.42
.47

.32
.14
.12
.43

.47
.34
.32
.50

.71
.13
.06
.10

.45
.33
.25
.30

.55
.17
.11
.16

.50
.38
.31
.37

.69
.17
.36
.47
.88
.41
.58
.01
15.74

.46
.37
.48
.50
.32
.49
.50
.08
7.72

328

23

Table 2. OLS Regression Models Examining the Effect of Job-Related Concerns on Psychological Distress.
Model 1Model 2Model 3Model 4

b
(SE )

Beta

b
(SE )

b
(SE )

b
(SE )

Beta

2.077 ***

.253

1.683 ***

.205

Beta

Beta

Independent Variables
Concerns about Job Insecurity(.385 )(.388 )

Concerns about Financial Strain

1.725 *** .175

.726(.465 )(.471 )

Concerns about Interpersonal Relationships

2.329 ***

.272(.422 )

Female (1=yes)

.211

.025

(.420 )a

Associate Degree (1=yes)

.053
a

.006

.186

.023

.092

(.785 )
1.457 ***

Widow (1=yes)b-1.399

.009

.737

.059

-.006

.103

1.752 *** .212

1.453 ***(.390 )(.389 )-.028

-1.045

-.021

-.107

(.034 )

-.061

*

.084

Significant at p < .05 ** Significant at p <.01 *** Significant at p <.001
a. "High school graduates" is reference group.
b. "Marred people" is reference group.

24-.082 *(.034 )
.116

-.001

.041

.005

-.074

-.006

(.813 )
.176

1.155 **-.015

-1.478.140(.385 )

(2.241 )-.118(.035 )

.114

-.727

-.005

(.509 )
.008

.176

.012

(.526 )(.522 )

(2.283 )

-.055

-.017

-.052

.103
(.413 )(.538 )(.828 )

(2.247 )Adjusted R-Square

.071

-.145

.224

(.426 )-.004(.814 )(.389 )

Monthly Income-.014(.530 )

1.152

Never Married (1=yes)b

-.119

-.032
(.422 )(.547 )(.521 )

Working status (1=working).025(.427 )(.539 )

Over Bachelor's Degrees (1=yes).213

1.913 ***

.074

-.030

(2.189 )-.158-.040 *(.034 )
.161

-.077

Table 3. OLS Regression Models Examining
the Long-Term Effect of Job-Related Concerns on Psychological Distress.

Independent Variables
Job Insecurity
Persistent Concernsa

Model 1Model 2Model 3Model 4

b
(SE )

Beta

b
(SE )

b
(SE )

b
(SE )

Beta

2.016 * * *.237

1.420 * *

.167

Beta

Beta

(.516 )

Concerns to No concerns

a

1.010

(.529 )
.087

.804(.646 )

No concerns to Concernsa1.713 * *

.141

1.230

(.684 )

Concerns to No concernsb

2.592 * * * .296

1.602 *(.726 )(.735 )

1.291

.107

1.204

(.906 )
b

1.570

.099

1.391

2.758 * * *.346(.627 )
c

.662

c

.063

1.819 *

.112

.013

Associate Degree (1=yes)d

-.232

-.028

(.621 )dOver Bachelor's Degrees (1=yes)

-.023

-.003

1.152

.143

e

.150

1.415 * *

-.355

.177

-.007

-.079

Adjusted R-Square
*

.104

.009

1.395

.116

1.540 * *

.122

-.050

-.238

-.030

.865

.192

.175

-.168

.022

.095

-.108 * *

.007

-.228

-.028

-.086

-.011

.660

.054

1.098 *

.137

.010

.000

(2.655 )-.209(.034 )
.121

Significant at p < .05 ** Significant at p <.01 *** Significant at p <.001

a. "No exposure to concerns about job insecurity" is reference group.
b. "No exposure to concerns about financial strain" is reference group.
c. "No exposure to concerns about interpersonal relationships at work" is reference group.
d. "High school graduates" is reference group.
e. "Marred people" is reference group.

25

.064

(.451 )

(2.674 )(.042 )

.109(.968 )(.439 )
1.112

1.386

(.598 )
.071

1.405 * *.034(.612 )(.964 )

.002-.086 *

-.415

.358

(.487 )(.597 )

(2.708 )-.155(.041 )

.074

-.006

(.616 )(.441 )

(2.703 )Monthly Income-.024(.945 )(.451 )

Widow (1=yes)e

-.201

-.050

.268

(.846 )(.492 )(.611 )(.908 )

Never Married (1=yes).022(.627 )(.599 )

Working status (1=working).188(.493 )

2.140 * *(.724 )(.845 )(.489 )

.086(.656 )(.713 )

Female (1=yes).100(1.042 )Interpersonal Relationships
Persistent Concernsc

No concerns to Concerns.183(.885 )

(1.050 )Concerns to No concerns.099(.700 )

Financial Strain
Persistent Concernsb

No concerns to Concerns.070(.644 )-.070(.042 )
.148

-.136

東京大学社会科学研究所パネル調査プロジェクトについて
労働市場の構造変動、急激な少子高齢化、グローバル化の進展などにともない、日本社会における就業、結婚、家族、教育、意識、ライフスタイルのあり方は大きく変化を遂げようとしている。これからの日本社会がどのような方向に進むのかを考える上で、現在生じている変化がどのような原因によるものなのか、あるいはどこが変化してどこが変化していないのかを明確にすることはきわめて重要である。
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