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Young adulthood is a challenging life phase including major life transitions like leaving the parental home, finishing education, starting a first job, starting romantic relationships, and parenthood. These transitions are interrelated, and are likely to be influenced by earlier life experiences, such as childhood adversities and poor mental health. At the same time, young adults have to earn a living in a new world of work characterized by temporary employment, self-employment, and a 24/7 work cycle in a global economy. To promote sustainable employment throughout the working lives of young adults, a life course perspective must be integrated into work and mental health research, policy, and practice. A life course perspective highlights the importance of prior life experiences, such as where individuals grew up, who they grew up with, and their education and health status prior to working. This chapter explains and emphasizes the importance of applying a life course perspective to the working lives of young adults.

Purpose Although common mental disorders (CMDs) highly impact individuals and society, a knowledge gap exists on how sickness absence can be prevented in workers with CMDs. This study explores: (1) workers’ perceived causes of sickness absence; (2) perceived return to work (RTW) barriers and facilitators; and (3) differences between workers with short, medium and long-term sickness absence. Methods A longitudinal qualitative study was conducted involving 34 workers with CMDs. Semi-structured interviews were held at two time-points during their RTW process. The 68 interviews were audio-taped, transcribed and thematically analyzed to explore workers’ perspective on sickness absence causes, RTW barriers and facilitators, and compare data across the three sub-groups of workers. Results Workers reported various causes for their absence, including: (1) high work pressure; (2) poor work relationships; (3) unhelpful thoughts and feelings, e.g. lacking self-insight; and (4) ineffective coping behaviors. According to workers, RTW was facilitated by work adjustments, fulfilling relationships with supervisors, and adequate occupational health guidance. Workers with short-term leave more often reported favorable work conditions, and proactive coping behavior. In contrast, the long-term group reported reactive coping behavior and dissatisfaction with their work. Conclusion Supporting workers with CMDs in gaining self-awareness and regaining control, discussing the value of their work, and creating work conditions that enable workers to do valuable work, seem central for successful RTW and might prevent sickness absence. Supervisors play a key role in enabling workers to do valuable work and further research should focus on how supervisors can be supported in this task.

Commonly used methods for modelling early life adversity (e.g., sum-scores, latent class or trajectory ap-proaches, single-adversity approaches, and factor-analytical approaches) have not been able to capture the complex nature of early life adversity. We propose network analysis as an alternative way of modelling early life adversity (ELA). Our aim was to construct a network of fourteen adverse events (AEs) that occurred before the age of 16 in the TRacking Adolescents Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS, N =1029). To show how network analysis can provide insight into why AEs are associated, we compared findings from the resulting network model to findings from tetrachoric correlation analyses. The resulting network of ELA comprised direct re-lationships between AEs and more complex, indirect relationships. A total of fifteen edges emerged in the network of AEs (out of 91 possible edges). The correlation coefficients suggested that many AEs were associated. The network model of ELA indicated, however, that several associations were attributable to interactions with other AEs. For example, the zero-order correlation between parental addiction and familial conflicts (0.24) could be explained by interactions with parental divorce. Our application of network analysis shows that using network analysis for modelling the ELA construct allows capturing the constructs' complex nature. Future studies should focus on gaining more insight into the most optimal model estimation and selection procedures, as well as sample size requirements. Network analysis provides researchers with a valuable tool that allows them as well as policy- makers and professionals to gain insight into potential mechanisms through which adversities are associated with each other, and conjunctively, with life course outcomes of interest

Objectives To develop effective return to work (RTW) interventions for employees on sick leave due to mental health problems (MHPs), a better understanding of individual variation in the RTW process is needed. We investigated which RTW trajectories can be identified among employees with MHPs in terms of RTW duration and relapse occurrence during the RTW process. Additionally, we examined how different RTW trajectories can be described in terms of personal and work characteristics. Methods Longitudinal sickness absence registry data were collected retrospectively from the largest Dutch occupational health service. Quantitative RTW information as well as personal and work characteristics were extracted. In total, 9517 employees with a sickness absence due to MHPs were included in the analyses (62 938 data points; RTW durations from 29 to 730 days). Results A latent class transition analysis revealed five distinct RTW trajectories, namely (1) fast RTW with little chance of relapse, (2) slow RTW with little chance of relapse, (3) fast RTW with considerable chance of relapse, (4) slow RTW with considerable chance of relapse and (5) very fast RTW with very small chance of relapse. Differences between employees in the slower and faster trajectories were observed regarding gender, age, type of MHP, organisation sector and organisation size but not regarding part-time work. Conclusions RTW trajectories among employees with MHPs showed large individual variability and differed on personal and work characteristics. Knowledge on different RTW trajectories and their characteristics contributes to the development of personalised RTW treatments, tailored to specific individuals and organisations.

Nieuwe begeleidingsmethode verkleint kans op terugval na verzuim Mensen die na afwezigheid door psychische problemen terugkeren op het werk, krijgen vaak te maken met een terugval – met nieuw verzuim tot gevolg. Iris Arends ontwikkelde een probleemoplossingsgerichte begeleidingsmethodiek. Zij concludeert dat met haar methode de kans op terugval naar verzuim over een periode van één jaar met 60% verkleind wordt. Ongeveer 30% van al het verzuim en arbeidsongeschiktheid wordt veroorzaakt door veelvoorkomende psychische problemen. Arends stelt dat de aandacht voor psychische problematiek onder werknemers zich vooral richt op re-integratie. Volgens haar is ook gestructureerde begeleiding van mensen die weer aan het werk zijn van groot belang om terugval naar verzuim (zonder begeleiding zo’n 20 tot 30%) te voorkomen. De promovenda ontwikkelde de SHARP-at work methode (Stimulating Healthy participation And Relapse Prevention, een vijf-stappenmethode om problemen op het werk in kaart te brengen en op te lossen) en liet deze uitvoeren door bedrijfsartsen. De methode werd door de artsen bij 80 mensen ingezet, de resultaten werden vergeleken met een controlegroep van 78 mensen. Arends concludeert dat het verzuim in de eerste groep 60% lager was dan in de controlegroep. Wanneer er wel sprake was van een terugval, dan vond deze in de eerste groep gemiddeld 100 dagen later plaats dan in de controlegroep. De methode kan volgens haar in de praktijk toegepast worden wanneer er goede afspraken gemaakt worden tussen bedrijfsartsen en werkgevers.