Social
Financial assets and mental health after job loss Catherine Ettman* Catherine Ettman Grace V. Ringlein Rajesh Satpathy-Horton Elizabeth A. Stuart Sandro Galea
While there is strong evidence on the effects of job loss on mental health, there is less evidence about the role of wealth in protecting mental health following job loss. Using data from the CLIMB study, a longitudinal cohort of working-age U.S. adults (18-64 years) surveyed in Spring 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 (n=581), we assessed depressive symptoms following job loss and tested for effect heterogeneity by wealth. First, we estimated the effect of early pandemic job loss on depressive symptoms (PHQ-9 scores, 0-27) across 5 survey periods (2020-2024) using survey weighted, propensity score balanced generalized estimating equation (GEE) models. A doubly robust propensity score model was used to estimate the average treatment effect on the treated (ATET). Models included age, gender, race and ethnicity, housing status, savings, marital status, region, income, and previous depression diagnosis. Second, we estimated the effect of job loss on depressive symptoms stratified by savings groups, using GEE with survey and propensity score weights. The full model estimated an increase of 1.11 points (p=0.16) in depressive symptoms relative to no job loss on average across the 5 timepoints. Stratified models showed an increase of 0.92 points (p=0.17) for those with >$25,000 savings and a 1.11 point increase (p=0.30) for those with <$25,000 in savings. We found evidence of a small but non-significant effect of early pandemic job loss on depressive symptoms overall in U.S. adults from 2020-2024. While persons with lower savings had higher depressive symptoms, we did not find evidence of a significant difference in the effect of job loss on mental health across savings groups, potentially due to sample size.