Mental Health in Contemporary Russia

This research investigates links between the employment status and mental health using data of Russian Longitudinal Monitory Survey (RLMS) for several periods. Thesis statement of this study is following: there is a connection between current occupation status of the individual and presence of mental health problems and the question is: how working status influence the psychological well-being? The major purpose of current research is to measure the influence of the position on labor market on mental health. One more side purpose is to determine some general trends of the mental morbidity within Russian population aged from 18 to 65 years old. This issue is urgent nowadays and demands more attention especially in developing countries. Mental health disorders are in top 10 reasons of years lived with disabilities alone with such diseases as cancer and diabetes. In order to deepen the knowledge about the interconnection of poor mental health and labor market factors influenced on it, this study was conducted on the sample of 15027, 7910, 15857 observations in 2012, 2005, 2001 - 2002 respectively. Respondents of the survey attribute to different federal districts of Russian Federation, level of education, marital status, type and status of occupation. In order to accomplish the empirical analysis, logit and ordered logit models were implemented. The most valuable findings of the study are 1) the absence of work negatively affects mental health, 2) having another job has bad influence on mental condition of white color workers, 3) women, divorced people, residents of Siberian Federal District are more susceptible to have mental disorders, 4) mental health deteriorates with age. The probability to have mental dysfunctions is influenced by labor market position and socio – economic determinants along with wide range of other causes.