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Several prospective studies have indicated increased risk of developing depressive symptoms in employees who report psychologically demanding and uncontrollable work (job strain). There are diverging findings regarding gender differences in this relationship. The aim was to analyse whether men and women differ with regard to the prospective relationship between adverse psychosocial work environment and depressive symptoms during a 2-year period.The Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health cohort based on representative recruitment of working men and women in Sweden was used. 2731 men and 3446 women had answered questions regarding work environment and mental health in 2008 and 2010. Psychological demands, decision authority, age and income as well as depressive symptoms in 2008 were used as predictors of depressive symptoms in 2010.Women reported less decision authority at work and their demand level developed more unfavourably than did men's--resulting in increased job strain gap between men and women from 2008 to 2010. The relationship between demand and decision authority (and job strain) on one hand and depressive symptoms on the other hand was not statistically different in men and women.Overall, women reported higher levels of job strain than men. In Sweden, job strain was as strongly related to depressive symptoms among men as among women.

Parental involvement in their children's studies, particularly in terms of academic socialisation, has been shown to predict academic achievement, and is thus a candidate modifiable factor influencing life course socioeconomic circumstances. Socioeconomic disadvantage is thought to impact on health over the life course partly by allostatic load, that is, cumulative biological risk. We sought to elucidate the role of parental involvement at age 16 on the life course development of allostatic load.In a population-based cohort (365 women and 352 men, 67% of the eligible participants), we examined the association between parental involvement in their offspring's studies, measured by teacher and pupil ratings at age 16 and an allostatic load index summarising 12 physiological risk markers at age 43. Mediation through life course academic and occupational achievement was assessed by entering school grades, adult educational achievement and socioeconomic position at age 43 in a linear regression analysis in a stepwise manner and testing for mediation.Parental interest in their offspring's studies during the last year of compulsory school-rather than the parent's social class or availability of practical academic support-was found to predict adult allostatic load (β=-0.12, 95% CI -0.20 to -0.05). Further adjustments indicated that academic achievement over the life course mediated a large part of the effect of parental interest on allostatic load.Parental interest in their offspring's studies may have protective effects by decreasing the likelihood of a chain of risk involving low academic achievement, low socioeconomic position and high accumulated physiological stress.

Although several studies have reported rather consistent associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and allostatic load (AL), so far no study has examined the influence of SES over the life course on AL. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between SES over the life course and AL in mid-adulthood, guided by the conceptual models of cumulative risk, critical period and social chain of risk.The sample comprises a 27-year prospective cohort (n=1071) from northern Sweden. Participants (n=855, 79.8%) completed questionnaires at the ages of 16, 21, 30 and 43 years. A health examination was performed at age 43 years after an overnight fast, including physical examination and blood sampling, and participants completed 1-day salivary cortisol sampling (four samples). SES was based on parental occupation at age 16 years and participants' own occupation at ages 21, 30 and 43 years. Information on daily smoking, snuff use, high alcohol consumption and physical inactivity was reported by the participants. An AL index was constructed from tertiles of 12 biological parameters.Cumulative socioeconomic disadvantage was related to AL in both women and men. The association was largely explained by health behaviours in men, but was independent of health behaviours in women. In women, an association was observed between AL and SES in adolescence, whereas in men only current SES was related to AL, independently of current health behaviours.SES over the life course influences the level of multi-systemic dysregulation in mid-adulthood, with the strongest support for the cumulative risk model.

Study objective: To investigate the long term effects of early unemployment (a total of more than half a year of unemployment between the ages of 16 and 21) on health behaviour and psychological and somatic symptoms. Design: A 14 year follow up of a cohort of school leavers was conducted from 1981 to 1995. Information was collected by questionnaires. Setting: An industrial town in northern Sweden. Participants: The original cohort was defined as all pupils in a middle sized municipality in the last year of compulsory school at age 16 (n=1083). The participants were followed up between the ages of 16 and 30. The analysis included 96% of the original sample, 547 men and 497 women Main results: After controlling for initial health behaviour and symptoms as well as for working class background and late unemployment, early unemployment among young men and women showed a significant explanatory effect on smoking, psychological symptoms and—among men only—somatic symptoms after a follow up of 14 years. No correlation was found between early unemployment and late excess alcohol consumption. Conclusions: Early unemployment can contribute to adult health problems. Thus, youth unemployment constitutes a significant public health problem, which to a certain extent remains in adult age.