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When work and satisfaction with life do not go hand in hand: health barriers and personal resources in the participation of people with chronic physical disabilities
- Authors:
- van CAMPEN Cretien, CARDOL Mieke
- Journal article citation:
- Social Science and Medicine, 69(1), July 2009, pp.56-60.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
People with chronic physical disabilities participate less in both paid and voluntary work and are less satisfied with their lives than people without health problems. Governments and scientists have suggested that participation in employment is the main road to well-being. National survey data was on the participation in work and satisfaction with life was analysed, comparing people with a chronic illness and a physical disability (n = 603) to people with a chronic illness but without a physical disability (n = 1199) and the general population (n = 6128) in the Netherlands. The results show that the relationship between happiness and work is different for people with a chronic illness and a physical disability, as compared to the other two populations. Fewer people with a chronic illness and disability were categorized as ‘satisfied people with work’ (i.e. participating in work and satisfied with their life), while most people belonged to a group of ‘satisfied people without work’ and, surprisingly, not to the expected group of ‘dissatisfied people without work’. In order to explain this exceptional distribution the authors modelled satisfied participation in work as an outcome of a balance between personal resources and barriers. By means of discriminant regression analysis, the severity of motor disability was identified as the main barrier, and education level and age, as the main resource factors that distinguish between ‘satisfied people with work’ and others among the group of people with a chronic illness and a physical disability.