Research project Mental health and early career labor market integration among the Swedish-born children of migrants
Swedish-born children of immigrants experience poorer career outcomes than their counterparts whose parents are born in Sweden. This is despite them attaining the same levels of education. To what degree can differences in mental health explain these inequalities?
The Swedish-born children of immigrants (G2) experience persistent labor market disadvantages, yet research has overlooked the G2’s poorer mental health in adolescence compared to the children of non-migrants as a potential mechanism. This project analyses how mental health problems in adolescence impact school-to-work transitions, whether early labor market disadvantages exacerbate mental health issues, and how these processes interrelated for the G2 and children of non-migrants.
Using Swedish register data, the project follows individuals born 1989–1997, ages 16–36. The project employs sequence analysis to capture school-to-work transitions transitions and longitudinal structural equation modeling to assess bidirectional relationships between employment status and mental health. It is carried out by an interdisciplinary team and includes descriptive analyses, longitudinal modeling, and causal inference strategies.