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Economic recessions, the industrial shift from manufacturing toward service industries, and rising global competition have contributed to uncertainty about job security, with potential consequences for workers' health. To address limitations of prior research on the health consequences of perceived job insecurity, we use longitudinal data from two nationally-representative samples of the United States population, and examine episodic and persistent perceived job insecurity over periods of about three years to almost a decade. Results show that persistent perceived job insecurity is a significant and substantively important predictor of poorer self-rated health in the American's Changing Lives (ACL) and Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) samples, and of depressive symptoms among ACL respondents. Job losses or unemployment episodes are associated with perceived job insecurity, but do not account for its association with health. Results are robust to controls for sociodemographic and job characteristics, negative reporting style, and earlier health and health behaviors.
Dramatic labor market changes have led to a rising sense that long-term relationships between employers and workers are becoming a thing of the past (Cappelli, Bassi, Katz, Knoke, Osterman, and Useem 1997; Hacker 2006). Economic recessions, the industrial shift from manufacturing toward service industries, and rising global competition have led to reductions of permanent employees through layoffs and plant closings, contributing to uncertainty about job security in recent years (Fullerton and Wallace 2007). The consequences of perceived job insecurity have received increasing popular and scholarly attention, and a limited number of studies have shown a negative association with health across a variety of national and organizational contexts (e.g., Cheng, Chen, Chen, and Chiang 2005; McDonough 2000). Existing studies have some important limitations, however. Some use cross-sectional data, leaving open the question of whether insecure workers actually become less healthy, or alternatively, if unhealthy workers are more likely to report that their jobs are insecure (Sverke, Gallagher, and Hellgren 2000). Those that use longitudinal data adjust for measures of prior health and other individual characteristics to address potential reverse causation due to health selection, and continue to find an impact of perceived insecurity on subsequent health (De Witte 1999; Dekker and Schaufeli 1995; Ferrie, Shipley, Marmot, Stansfeld, and Smith 1998; Heaney, Israel, and House 1994; Hellgren and Sverke 2003). But these longitudinal studies generally have used only a single point-in-time measure of perceived job insecurity and have not explored job losses or unemployment as an alternative explanation for a relationship between perceived insecurity and health. Moreover, existing longitudinal studies are based on samples that may not generalize across workers in the United States, where employment contracts have become less secure and worker protections have declined in the past several decades (Price and Burgard 2008).
Macroeconomic changes in the last several decades have generated a sense that no one is immune from instability at work (Elman and O'Rand 2002; Schmidt 2000) though a relatively smaller fraction of the U.S. labor force experiences job loss due to these changes. If perceived job insecurity is associated with health decline net of objective employment disruptions, it could represent an even wider population health threat than job loss or unemployment. A better understanding of the distribution and consequences of perceived job insecurity in the United States is needed to improve scientific understanding that can inform policy and intervention there, with potential implications for other societies as well.
An individual worried about losing a job may experience stress due to anticipation about the problems associated with a job loss, mental strain associated with being in a powerless position, and ambiguity about the future (Heaney, Israel, and House 1994; Joelson and Wahlquist 1987). Perceived job insecurity is not a socially-visible event like job loss or unemployment, but an internal experience for which there are no obvious appropriate responses and no institutionalized supports. Also, people experiencing perceived job insecurity cannot employ instrumental strategies of coping because of the persistent uncertainty about whether or not the feared employment instability will actually occur. These circumstances make perceived insecurity potentially as stressful, or perhaps even more stressful, than actual job losses or unemployment episodes (Hartley, Jacobson, Klandermans, and van Vuuren 1991; Lazarus 1966). Workers' responses to the stress of perceived job insecurity in the shorter term could be emotional (anxiety, tension, dissatisfaction), physiological (elevated heart rate, increased catecholamine secretion) and behavioral (drug use, absenteeism, lack of concentration), while in the longer term, the accumulation of these responses could result in more permanent and manifest adverse consequences for mental and physical health (Gazzaniga and Heatherton 2003; Heaney, Israel, and House 1994).
While some studies have classified people as experiencing job insecurity if they work at a factory or organization that has announced layoffs or closure (e.g., Ferrie, Shipley, Marmot, Stansfeld, and Smith 1995; Iversen, Sabroe, and Damsgaard 1989; Kasl, Cobb, and Brooks 1968; Mattiasson, Lindgarde, Nilsson, and Theorell 1990), others have asked individuals in broader, population-based samples how likely they think it is that they will lose their job (e.g., Cheng, Chen, Chen, and Chiang 2005; McDonough 2000). The latter strategy more specifically targets "perceived" job insecurity, and is the approach we take in the present study. While there are clear advantages to plant closure studies, most notably that preexisting health problems of individual workers are less likely to be the underlying cause of their job insecurity, there are also limitations. For example, when a plant is scheduled to close all workers are exposed to the same threat of actual job loss, making it nearly impossible to disentangle the contribution of perceived job insecurity – that exists before the plant closes – from the objective employment insecurity that these workers will experience when it does close. Moreover, even given the same objective employment conditions, the perception and consequences of perceived job insecurity may vary across individuals based on their appraisal of the context and their situation (Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt 1984; Hartley, Jacobson, Klandermans, and van Vuuren 1991). For these reasons, and to examine associations across the population of U.S. workers, we use self-reported measures of perceived job insecurity obtained from nationally-representative samples of adults working in a variety of objective employment situations.
Perceived job insecurity is a subjective experience and must be self-reported, so there are challenges to obtaining a reliable assessment of its impact on subsequent health. When using respondents' self-reports of their health as outcome measures, any association with perceived job insecurity may be spurious if an underlying negative reporting style determines respondents' reports of both outcome (health) and predictor (insecurity) (Brief, Burke, George, Robinson, and Webster 1988; Watson and Clark 1984). We include a measure of an individual's level of neuroticism in all multivariate analyses; longitudinal analyses using repeated measures of perceived job insecurity and self-reported health also help to reduce the influence of other stable underlying traits that cause individuals to report in a consistently negative way.
There have been a few prospective studies of the association between perceived job insecurity and subsequent health, but most have relied on measurement of perceived job insecurity at a single time point (e.g., Lee, Colditz, Berkman, and Kawachi 2004), such that we know relatively little about whether workers with more persistent exposure are likely to fare worse than their counterparts with briefer exposure. Two prospective studies have shown the poorest health outcomes for those who perceived job insecurity at both of two measurement points, one study with measurements in 1986 and 1987 (Heaney, Israel, and House 1994), and the other with measurements in 1995/6 and 1997/99 (Ferrie, Shipley, Stansfeld, and Marmot 2002). Ferrie and colleagues (2002) also showed that respondents who became insecure after baseline, and those who were insecure at baseline but not at follow-up, generally had worse health than the never insecure, but better health than the persistently insecure.
Even methodologically-rigorous prospective studies generally have not addressed the possibility that the perceived job insecurity–health relationship is spurious, generated by unmeasured objective employment insecurity. Job losses and unemployment experiences have been linked to negative health consequences for workers in the United States in many studies (Burgard, Brand, and House 2007; Gallo, Bradley, Dubin, Jones, Falba, Teng, and Kasl 2006; Gallo, Teng, Falba, Kasl, Krumholz, and Bradley 2006; Kessler, Turner, and House 1989; Turner 1995). A recent job loss could predict both current perceived job insecurity and subsequent health decline, or workers worried about losing their jobs may be predicting an actual spell of unemployment in the near future, which then acts as the true cause of subsequent health decline.
The few studies that have considered objective employment insecurity have produced mixed results. One population-based prospective study designed to assess the impact of the 1974–75 U.S. recession on the well-being of full-time workers and the potential mediators of that association considered repeated measures of perceived job insecurity and actual unemployment experiences in 1973 and 1977. Rather than creating a categorical indicator of episodic and persistent insecurity as in the studies discussed above, Tausig and Fenwick (1999) used an indicator of perceived job insecurity in 1973 and an indicator of change in perceived insecurity between 1973 and 1977. They found that perceived job insecurity and change in insecurity were not associated with a measure of general distress in 1977. However, a study of state employees in Australia showed that those who perceived job insecurity in 1990 and lost their jobs by 1991 showed a reduction in psychological distress, while those who remained both employed and insecure in 1990 and 1991 showed significantly higher psychological distress (Dekker and Schaufeli 1995).
A final limitation of existing studies is that findings may not generalize across workers in the United States. For example, past studies examining perceived insecurity at multiple time points used samples of employees of a single Michigan automotive factory (Heaney, Israel, and House 1994) and white collar civil servants in Britain (Ferrie, Shipley, Stansfeld, and Marmot 2002), while the sole nationally-representative study of U.S. workers with multiple measures of insecurity used data from the mid-1970s (Tausig and Fenwick 1999). Since then macroeconomic conditions have changed drastically. Studies of perceived job insecurity based on more recently collected nationally-representative data have been conducted in Western Europe (e.g., Rugulies, Bultmann, Aust, and Burr 2006), Canada (McDonough 2000), and Taiwan (Cheng, Chen, Chen, and Chiang 2005), where benefits for displaced workers, unionization, and employer latitude to lay-off and fire workers vary considerably.
Our study includes several innovations that build on the extant literature. We examined episodic and persistent perceived insecurity, comparing our findings across two large, nationally-representative samples of U.S. adults. These studies covered different historical periods and made it possible to examine the robustness of results over follow up periods of three years versus almost ten years. We also examined job losses or unemployment both prior to the first measurement of perceived job insecurity, and over the period of follow-up, to untangle their potential contributions. Based on the prior evidence and gaps therein, we examined several hypotheses:
Hypothesis 1: Perceived job insecurity is associated with subsequent health among U.S. workers;
Hypothesis 2: Persistent exposure to perceived job insecurity is associated with worse health consequences than episodic exposure;
Hypothesis 3: The association between perceived job insecurity and health is not completely explained by job losses or unemployment episodes.
Two complementary data sources are used to examine the relationship between perceived job insecurity and health over about twenty years of recent history. The American's Changing Lives (ACL) study is a stratified, multi-stage area probability sample of non-institutionalized adults 25 years and older living in the United States in 1986, with oversampling of adults 60 and older and of African Americans (House, Lantz, and Herd 2005). Face-to-face interviews lasting approximately 90 minutes were conducted at baseline (Wave 1), with response rates of 70 percent for households and 68 percent for individuals, and follow-up face-to-face interviews (Wave 2) were conducted with 83 percent of survivors in 1989. Follow up surveys were also conducted in 1994 and 2001/2, but information on perceived job insecurity was not collected, so these are not used. Sample weights to adjust for oversampling of special populations, sample non-response and non-coverage as of Wave 1, and loss to follow-up due to attrition or death by Wave 2 are used in all descriptive and multivariate analyses. The analytic sample included ACL respondents who were employed at Wave 1 (N = 1,867), who responded to the survey in Wave 2 (N = 1,550) and who had complete information on all covariates (N=1,507). The Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study is a nationally-representative survey of English-speaking Americans aged 25 to 74, initiated in 1995–96. Thirty minute telephone interviews and two mailed self-administered questionnaires were used at baseline (Wave 1) and in a follow-up interview (Wave 2) in 2005. Response rates in 1995 for the main random digit-dialed sample used here were 70 percent for the phone interview and 87 percent for the self-administered questionnaire (among those who completed a phone interview), for an overall response rate of 61 percent. Follow up phone interviews were conducted in 2005 with 71 percent of known survivors from 1995–96, and 80 percent of these retuned a self-administered questionnaire. Sample weights for Wave 2 have been designed to correct for selection probabilities and non-response, and are used in all descriptive and multivariate analyses. The analytic sample included MIDUS respondents who were employed at Wave 1 (N = 1,712), who responded to the survey in Wave 2 (N = 1,254) and who had complete information on all covariates (N=1,216).
By comparing these two samples, we obtain information about one period of declining unemployment, from about 7 percent in 1986 to about 5 percent in 1989, and a longer period during which unemployment fell but then rose again, so that the rate was about 5.5 percent in both 1995 and 2005. The baseline survey waves for each survey were collected a few years after much higher cyclical peaks in the U.S. unemployment rate, at around 10 percent in 1983 and 7.5 percent in 1992.
We use overall self-rated health and depressive symptoms (ACL)/negative affect (MIDUS) as health outcomes. Self-rated health is measured in both samples with a single item: "How would you rate your health at the present time?" with five response categories ranging from poor (1) to excellent (5). Self-rated health has been shown to be a reliable, valid measure of health, and is predictive of subsequent functional decline and mortality (Idler and Benyamini 1997) and physical health among adults of working age, despite our limited understanding of the complexities of how individuals rate their health (Schnittker 2005).
As a second measure of health we use closely related, but distinct measures of mental well-being: depressive symptoms (ACL) and negative affect (MIDUS). These measures both capture symptoms of poor mental health, rather than diagnosable depression, and may provide a more sensitive indicator of recent changes in well-being. Depressive symptoms are measured in the ACL with an eleven-item version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale or CES-D (Radloff 1977). Responses to each item about how respondents felt in the past week are scored on a three-item Likert scale (1 = hardly ever, 2 = some of the time, 3 = most of the time) and scores of all available items are averaged (α = 0.82). The MIDUS negative affect index is based on a series of questions about negative sentiments drawn from a collection of related measures, including the CES-D. This index contains six items (α = 0.87). Respondents are asked about their feelings in the past 30 days, and responses to items are scored on a five-item Likert scale ranging from 1 = all of the time to 5 = none of the time, with all available items averaged. One identical overlapping item is used in the construction of the ACL and MIDUS indices: "I felt that everything I did was an effort." Several other items used for each index overlap conceptually across samples, as shown in Appendix A, but these two indices of poor mental health are not interchangeable and results should be interpreted accordingly.
Indicators of perceived insecurity at Waves 1 and 2 are used to construct measures of episodic and persistent exposure to perceived job insecurity. ACL respondents employed for pay were asked in 1986 and 1989: "How likely is it that during the next couple of years you will involuntarily lose your main job – not at all likely, not too likely, somewhat likely, or very likely?" For ACL respondents, perceived job insecurity is dichotomized so that 0 = not insecure (not at all or not too likely to lose job) and 1 = insecure (somewhat or very likely to lose job); this dichotomization of job insecurity is consistent with several prior studies using similar measures (Elman and O'Rand 2002; Schmidt 2000). MIDUS respondents employed for pay in 1995 and 2005 were asked a similar question at each wave, though the emphasis was on keeping their job rather than losing it: "If you wanted to stay in your present job, what are the chances you could keep it for the next two years – excellent, very good, good, fair or poor?" For MIDUS respondents, perceived job insecurity is dichotomized so that 0 = not insecure (excellent or very good chance to stay in job) and 1 = insecure (good, fair or poor chance to stay in job). No studies have used the MIDUS item in dichotomized form, so we strove to achieve the greatest similarity in frequency of perceived insecurity between this and the ACL measure. Coded this way, the percentage of MIDUS respondents reporting insecurity in Wave 1 (16 percent) was similar to the percentage of ACL respondents who did so in Wave 1 (18 percent). Using data from the General Social Survey, Fullerton and Wallace (2007) show that the unadjusted percentage of respondents reporting that they were fairly or very likely to lose their job in the next 12 months was very similar in 1986 and 1996, so the stability in unadjusted perceived insecurity in our samples in 1986 and 1995 seems reasonable. We create an indicator of episodic and persistent perceived job insecurity with four categories: 0 = perceived insecurity at neither wave; 1 = Wave 1 only; 2 = Wave 2 only; and 3 = Waves 1 and 2.
We include measures of job loss among ACL respondents and of unemployment experience among MIDUS respondents. At each survey wave, ACL respondents were asked: "In the last three years, have you involuntarily lost a job for reasons other than retirement?" coded so that 0 = no job loss and 1 = job loss. We consider job losses occurring between 1983 and 1986, up to three years prior to Wave 1, and between 1986 and1989, between Waves 1 and 2. Information about recent involuntary job losses was not collected from MIDUS respondents, so we use respondents' reports of unemployment in the past 12 months, coded so that 0 = no unemployment in the past year and 1 = at least one week of unemployment. Respondents were asked how many weeks they were unemployed, so we explored continuous and categorical specifications; multivariate results were substantively equivalent regardless of specification. We consider unemployment experiences in the 12 months prior to Wave 1 and in the 12 months preceding the Wave 2 interview.
To address the possibility that health selection influences estimates of the association between perceived job insecurity and health, we pursue two strategies. First, we control for measures of an individuals' health prior to and concurrent with the Wave 1 measure of perceived job insecurity. For ACL respondents, we use self-reported occurrences and dates of serious or life-threatening illnesses or accidental injuries to construct an indicator of a health shock (0 = no shock, 1 = had shock) between 1983 and 1986. For MIDUS respondents we include a self-reported measure of the respondents' mental health at age 16, coded so that 1= poor and 5 = excellent. To measure health at Wave 1 for ACL and MIDUS respondents, we include respondents' self report of experiencing or being treated for hypertension in the past year (0 = no report and 1 = reported hypertension) and current smoking status (0 = nonsmoker and 1 = current smoker). These measures are used as indicators of health status and behavior that could both select workers into particular jobs and influence subsequent health directly. As a second strategy to address potential health selection, we also control for a baseline measure of the focal health outcome, either self-rated health or depressive symptoms/negative affect. This is a relatively strict control, as perceived insecurity measured at baseline may have been a problem for some time beforehand, and controlling for baseline health will thus reduce the apparent association between persistent perceived insecurity and subsequent health.
We also include a measure of neuroticism, a relatively stable underlying personality trait that may mark a negative reporting style. In the ACL we use a neuroticism index based on the four questions from the Eysenck Personality Inventory (Eysenck and Eysenck 1975), such as "Are you a worrier?" The standardized scale has a range from −1.2 (least neurotic) to 2.2 (most neurotic). For MIDUS respondents, a neuroticism index was available based on four items. Respondents were asked to "Please indicate how well each of the following describes you – not at all (1), a little (2), some (3), or a lot (4)." Items included in the index were: moody, worrying, nervous, and calm. Scores across items were averaged for all individuals reporting at least two items and range from 1 (least) to 4 (most neurotic).
Finally, multivariate analyses adjust additively for key sociodemographic characteristics and job characteristics that predict job insecurity and/or health. We include a measure of the respondent's sex (0 = female, 1 = male) and age at baseline. We mean-center the respondent's age for regression models to obtain a measure that denotes the difference from the average respondent's age in that year. Respondent's race is coded as 0 = non-Black or 1 = Black; there were not enough respondents of other racial/ethnic backgrounds to construct additional categories for the analysis. Marital status is coded so that 0 = married or living with a partner and 1 = unmarried/not living with a partner. We also tested an indicator that distinguished individuals with working spouses from those whose spouses did not work and from the unmarried; results did not differ from those presented. Educational attainment at baseline is coded as 0 = some college or more and 1 = high school graduate or less. We also include a measure of household income, reported in Table 1 in 2007 dollars, but transformed by taking the logarithm for multivariate analysis (a small positive constant of $500 was added before taking the logarithm so that individuals with no income are retained). We also include indicators of self-employment (0 = not self-employed, 1 = self-employed), as self-employed people may have greater control over their employment status, and part-time status (less than 35 hours per week), to indicate extent of involvement in paid work. Additional job characteristics were explored, including blue-collar versus white-collar occupation, major occupational group, occupational status, job strain, and indicators of the psychological salience of the job, but none added substantively to the analysis.
All analyses are conducted using Stata software version 10.0 SE. For multivariate analyses we estimate ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models with robust standard errors. We found no evidence for significant problems of multicollinearity; the variance inflation factor ranges from 1.04 to 1.45 for all independent variables. We also tested an ordinal logistic regression specification for models of self-rated health, but results were consistent with those presented here, so we present the more easily interpretable and parsimonious OLS estimates. OLS approaches rely on the strong assumption that unmeasured factors are uncorrelated with included covariates, so fixed effects specifications are preferred in causal modeling, where the outcome is specified as the difference between the post- and pre-treatment measures (Allison 1994; Halaby 2004). While preferring the fixed effects approach, however, Allison argues that both this and the "regressor variable" method used here (i.e., a baseline measure of the health outcome of interest is included as a predictor) account for empirical patterns in observational studies and that each has strengths. We pursue the regressor variable method because the conventional fixed effects approach drops all participants whose exposure does not change over time, eliminating respondents with persistent exposure to perceived job insecurity, a group of particular interest in our analysis.
In all regression models we use Wave 2 survey weights to adjust for loss to follow up. In addition, we estimate models using all respondents working at Wave 1 and responding to the survey in Wave 2, even those who had left paid employment by Wave 2. Retaining only those working at both Wave 1 and 2 may introduce selectivity into the analytic sample, particularly for the MIDUS sample with its much longer follow up period. Results presented here are consistent with those obtained from a more restricted sample of respondents working at both survey waves.
Means and standard deviations or percentages of dependent and independent variables are presented in Table 1, separately for ACL and MIDUS respondents. Variables measured differently across samples are presented on separate rows.
Table 1 shows that average self-rated health at Wave 2 is similar for ACL and MIDUS respondents at 3.6 to 3.8, reflecting scores close to "very good." Average levels of depressive symptoms/negative affect fall in the lower end of the possible ranges for both ACL respondents (mean: 1.3, range: 1.0 – 2.8) and MIDUS respondents (mean: 1.5, range: 1.0–5.0). About 18 percent of ACL respondents perceived job insecurity in 1986 and 15 percent perceived insecurity in 1989, compared with about 16 percent of MIDUS respondents in 1995 and 13 percent in 2005. While about three-quarters of each sample did not perceive job insecurity, about 13 percent reported it in Wave 1 only, about 7–8 percent in Wave 2 only, and 3–5 percent in both waves. Episodic and persistence measures are presented for all respondents working at Wave 1 (though some have left paid work by Wave 2 and thus are ineligible to report perceived insecurity at Wave 2 only, or in both Waves 1 and 2). In a more restricted sample working at both waves (not shown), the distributions were similar, with 11–12 percent insecure in Wave 1 only, 9–10 percent insecure in Wave 2 only, and 4–6 percent insecure at both waves. About 9 percent of ACL respondents lost a job involuntarily between 1983 and 1986, while about 8 percent did between 1986 and 1989. About 6 percent of MIDUS respondents experienced at least one week of unemployment in 1994, and about 5 percent did in 2004. The two samples show many similarities in the other sociodemographic characteristics, though there are more smokers and a greater share of men in the ACL sample, and a larger fraction of MIDUS respondents left paid work over the longer follow up.
Figure 1 and Figure 2 present bivariate comparisons of episodic and persistent perceived job insecurity by key sociodemographic characteristics and objective employment experiences, with chi-square tests used to assess the significance of differences. Figure 1 shows that among ACL respondents, Blacks report significantly more insecurity than non-Blacks (p < .05), those with high school or less education report significantly more job insecurity than those with more education (p <.01), and those with a job loss in the three years before baseline (p < .001) or over follow-up (p < .001) report considerably more perceived insecurity than those who did not experience a job loss.
Figure 2 presents the same comparisons for MIDUS respondents; the only significant differences are between those with unemployment experience in 1994 (p < .001) or in 2004 (p < .001) and those without any unemployment experience. Both figures show that the largest variation in perceived job insecurity is associated with objective employment insecurity experiences, suggesting that people are responding realistically to their experiences in the labor market.
Table 2 (ACL) and Table 3 (MIDUS) present results from OLS regression models of self-rated health and depressive symptoms/negative affect, displaying unstandardized coefficients with robust standard errors in parentheses. Results show that with only basic controls for sex, age, race, and employment status at follow-up in Models 1 and 4, ACL and MIDUS respondents who perceived job insecurity only at Wave 1 have significantly worse depressive symptoms/negative affect at Wave 2 than those who never perceived job insecurity, although the association is only marginally significant (p < .10) among MIDUS respondents. ACL respondents who perceived insecurity only at Wave 1 have significantly poorer self-rated health. Respondents who reported insecurity only at Wave 2 have significantly poorer self-rated health and negative affect at Wave 2 in the MIDUS sample. For ACL and MIDUS respondents alike, however, Models 1 and 4 in Tables 2 and and33 show that persistent exposure to perceived job insecurity is associated with substantively and statistically significantly worse self-rated health and depressive symptoms/negative affect.
Adding controls for sociodemographic and job characteristics, health prior to wave one, hypertension and smoking status, neuroticism, and objective employment insecurity before Wave 1 (Models 2 and 5) and objective employment insecurity over follow-up (Models 3 and 6) eliminates the association between perceived job insecurity at Wave 1 and health at Wave 2. Negative effects of perceived insecurity do not appear to persist after insecure working conditions, or an individual's appraisal of them, change for the better, and after we adjust for factors that may select workers into an insecure job at Wave 1. The additional controls also reduce the association between insecurity at Wave 2 and health at Wave 2 among MIDUS respondents, leaving it only marginally significant in models of negative affect and no longer significant for self-rated health. However, respondents who perceived job insecurity at Waves 1 and 2 have significantly worse self-rated health at follow-up in both samples, and significantly more depressive symptoms among ACL respondents. The association between persistent insecurity and negative affect is no longer significant for MIDUS respondents, likely due to the small number of respondents in this exposure category (N = 35). When we reclassified MIDUS respondents with less than an "excellent" chance to stay in their job as insecure (resulting in 14 percent of respondents persistently insecure instead of the 3 percent reported on here), we found that respondents who were persistently insecure showed significantly worse negative affect (results not shown). By contrast, recoding similarly for ACL resulted in a much larger 30 percent of respondents being classified as persistently insecure, and reduced the magnitude of the association with both outcome measures, rendering the association with depressive symptoms non-significant.
To assess the sensitivity of our findings to the specifications used here, we re-estimated models using only respondents working at both waves, using those who were healthiest at wave one, and including unemployed respondents in the exposed category (models not shown). None of these alternative specifications substantially changed the results reported here, except in some cases making them stronger. We also included measures of stress from other social roles in models not shown here, but our results were unchanged. Finally, we explored interactions between perceived job insecurity and several socio-demographic characteristics of workers, but did not find strong or consistent evidence for socially-patterned differentials in the health consequences of perceived job insecurity.
Dramatic changes in the U.S. labor market over recent decades – rising global competition, major restructuring of firms and industrial shifts, and waves of job displacements – have weakened bonds between employers and employees and fueled perceptions of job insecurity. This study provides stronger evidence for the link between perceived insecurity and health than has been available heretofore, with measures of episodic and persistent exposure, adjustment for typically unmeasured job losses and unemployment experiences that could create a spurious relationship, and broad coverage of U.S. workers. We also compared results across longitudinal samples that span about three years to almost a decade, and cover different macroeconomic periods over the 1980s through the mid-2000s.
We hypothesized that perceived job insecurity is associated with subsequent health among U.S. workers, that persistent exposure is associated with worse health consequences than episodic exposure, and that the association is not entirely explained by job losses or unemployment episodes. Our results show that even after adjusting for sociodemographic and job characteristics, health prior to baseline, neuroticism, hypertension and smoking status, and objective employment insecurity before baseline or over follow-up, perceived job insecurity remains a significant predictor of subsequent health. The association is largely concentrated among individuals who reported persistent perceived job insecurity; persistently insecure ACL and MIDUS respondents report significantly worse self-rated health at follow-up, and persistently insecure ACL respondents showed significantly worse depressive symptoms at Wave 2 than those who never perceived their jobs were at risk. Moreover, standardized coefficients (not shown) suggest that persistent job insecurity is a substantively meaningful predictor of subsequent health (not shown). Among ACL respondents, for example, persistent job insecurity has a larger association with self-rated health at follow up than hypertension or smoking status at baseline. By contrast, in only one case was episodic exposure associated with health; perceived insecurity at only Wave 2 was associated with negative affect at Wave 2 among MIDUS respondents, though the association was only marginally significant. The lack of a similar finding for depressive symptoms among ACL respondents might be explained by the substantial variation in the length of the follow-up between studies. It is not possible to determine when respondents who felt secure in Wave 1, but insecure by Wave 2, began to worry about their job security. Nonetheless, with almost a decade between exposure measurements for MIDUS respondents, the potential that the job insecurity measured at Wave 2 had been present long enough to exert effects on mental health is greater than for ACL respondents, whose exposure measurements were collected only about three years apart.
These findings are broadly consistent with those obtained in prior studies of Michigan auto workers (Heaney, Israel, and House 1994) and British civil servants (Ferrie, Shipley, Stansfeld, and Marmot 2002), in that persistent insecurity appears to have the strongest association with health. The larger sample used in the study by Ferrie and colleagues may help to explain why they found stronger associations between episodic exposure and subsequent or concurrent health. However, our results differed from another population-based study of U.S. workers, which did not show a significant influence of perceived insecurity in 1973 or change in perceived insecurity between 1973 and 1977 on distress in 1977 (Tausig and Fenwick 1999). When we re-estimated our models using Tausig and Fenwick's strategy for coding perceived insecurity and added other predictors included in their analysis, however, the results (not shown) were substantively very similar to those presented here. Perceptions of job insecurity and its salience for U.S. workers may have changed since the recession of the mid-1970s, but it is worth noting that our findings may also be tied to the historical periods they cover. Alternatively, the differences between these two U.S. studies may be due to the different measures of health used.
While job losses and unemployment spells predicted reports of perceived insecurity (Figures 1 and and2),2), controls for objective employment insecurity did not eliminate the association between persistent perceived insecurity and subsequent health. Our results suggest that concerns about job loss are associated with their own negative consequences, net of the effects of actual job separation and unemployment during the same period of the career. In fact, the estimated impact of perceived insecurity is greater than the estimated effects of job losses or unemployment episodes, based on standardized coefficients (not shown). That objective employment insecurity does not exercise a stronger negative effect on health may appear unexpected, but there are a number of reasons why chronically-high perceived job insecurity may be more strongly associated with health decline than actual job loss or unemployment. These include the ongoing ambiguity about the future, inability to take action unless the feared event actually happens, and the lack of institutionalized supports associated with perceived insecurity. Moreover, there is considerable heterogeneity across workers who lose jobs. For example, a job loss for health-related reasons is relatively rare, but is associated with worse health trajectories than losses for other reasons (Burgard, Brand, and House 2007).
Some limitations of this study remain. We are unable to fully control for unobserved heterogeneity across individuals in the models used here. Unmeasured characteristics of individuals, such as their true underlying health status, could account for both perceived insecurity and health decline. Still, we have included multiple measures of health and health behavior at and before baseline, providing control for time-invariant unobserved characteristics of individuals that may bias association between job insecurity and health, and further tested the sensitivity of our findings in several ways detailed above. A second important limitation is the difficulty of assessing the causal ordering of changes in exposure and outcome. Using prospective measurements of perceived job insecurity improves upon most prior studies, but the actual sequence of events that occurs between survey waves remains unclear. Further attention to these difficulties is warranted, possibly by collecting data with more measurement points and detailed assessment of the timing of changes in perceived job security and health. Finally, as is the case in many studies of job insecurity, we rely on self-reports gathered in survey data. This means that unmeasured characteristics of respondents could determine their responses to questions about their perceived insecurity and their depressive symptoms, for example, creating a spurious association between the two. We have made efforts to address this problem by using longitudinal data, because stable individual characteristics that affect self-reports should be eliminated when we examine changes in health over time. We have also included a measure of neuroticism to tap underlying negative reporting styles, and indicators of objective job losses or unemployment spells. Nonetheless, future studies should include more objective measures of health outcomes where possible.
Our findings have potential implications for policy and intervention. Persistently insecure workers appear to be at risk of negative health consequences, and identification and monitoring are needed so that solutions can be tailored to their experiences. Programs designed for displaced or unemployed workers are unlikely to solve problems faced by many workers who perceive job insecurity, because only a subset of them experiences job loss or unemployment. Different intervention strategies are likely needed to address the damaging aspects of persistent perceived job insecurity. It would also be useful to know more about the conditions that generate or change workers' perceptions of their job security. Could organizations intervene to reduce perceptions of insecurity and/or their deleterious consequences? Or are broader governmental policies needed that would cushion the adverse effects of job loss, and hence also mitigate the degree of stress associated with perceived job insecurity? Moreover, additional acute and chronic strains in the work domain and other life domains could compound the strain of perceived job insecurity. Future work should also examine the actions undertaken by individuals who perceive their jobs to be insecure (Thoits 1994); do insecure workers who voluntarily change jobs fare better than those who remain in insecure jobs? In addition, the context surrounding the perceived job insecurity–health relationship deserves more attention. Aggregate-level conditions, such as the vibrancy of the national and local labor market, may influence the perception or consequences of job insecurity (Catalano, Rook, and Dooley 1986; Tausig and Fenwick 1999).
Job insecurity is not a new phenomenon, and social commentators have been concerned with its consequences at least since Marx described a "reserve army of labor" whose low wages and unstable employment opportunities instilled fear of job loss in other workers (McDonough 2000). However, as increased "flexibility" in the labor market and the current economic downturn leaves workers at all levels of the occupational hierarchy with concerns about the future of their positions, and consequences of job loss continue to be substantial, perceived job insecurity persists as a potential threat to population health.
Author Comments:
Burgard and Brand were supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Health & Society Scholars Program. Brand was supported by the Carolina Population Center NICHD training grant. This research uses data from the Americans' Changing Lives Study, which has been supported by grants from the National Institute on Aging (PO1 AG05561 and R01 AG018418) and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigators in Health Policy Research Program (030987), which have also supported House's involvement with this paper. We also use data from the Midlife in the United State Study (MIDUS), funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the National Institute on Aging, and publicly available from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR).
Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
Sarah A. Burgard, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI UNITED STATES.
Jennie E Brand, University of California, Los Angeles.
James S House, University of Michigan.
PubMed Central Canada is a service of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) working in partnership with the National Research Council's national science library in cooperation with the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the U.S. National Library of Medicine(NCBI/NLM). It includes content provided to the PubMed Central International archive by participating publishers.


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Difficult Decisions
In my last post, I shared how the precious boy we had been pursuing since February 12th was not going to be our son. I have never experienced a miscarriage after conceiving biological children, but I will say this, a miscarriage is the only thing to which I can liken this experience. When we conceive a child, the heart of a mother becomes attached, bonded to that child. We know we might miscarry. We know the pregnancy could result in a child being born too soon or a still birth. The child may be diagnosed with a condition that will end its life too soon. We know in our hearts that we may lose this child, but we hope and we love with abandon anyway because we are mothers after all. It is what God created us to do.
The same concept is true with adoption. You see a child, and with the knowledge that you may never meet this child - due to illness, injury, a halting of the adoption process, not being chosen as the child's family, etc. - you fall in love anyway. You hope. You dream. You imagine the future. Your risk it all, falling in love, because the child is worth it. One redeeming piece of this story, as it has been written so far, is knowing that the little boy's family is absolutely, positively incredible. With amazing courage and tenderness, his mom reached out to me, and her family is all that I could ever hope for this sweet boy. I adore them and pray that their new son will be in their arms very soon!
When waves of grief come over me, I have to remind myself that God is good all the time. I trust Him above all else, and His ways are not my ways. This life is not about me, my happiness, or my comfort, even though I selfishly wish it was. I told the Lord 2 1/2 years ago that I would follow Him. I made the decision to stop playing it safe by living for myself and gave my life over to Him in a new way. While waiting for the little boy's file, I told God that I am not willing to get what I want at the expense of missing His purpose for my life. Less of me. More of Him. The Lord's decision is clear, and Ryan and I really believe that the right family was chosen for the little boy. I am learning that I can experience great joy and heartache simultaneously. One does not negate the other. The emotions are not mutually exclusive. Our peace with this situation is the result of our deep trust and surrender to His Will, as well as knowing that the chosen family is going to shower their son with unconditional love all the days of his life.
In an effort to move forward, Ryan and I have been looking at pictures and videos of many children on our agency's website. For those of you outside the adoption community, this is an extremely difficult experience. For those adoptive mommas and poppas out there, I know you feel me. We honestly did not look at our agency's waiting children a lot during our first adoption. When we did look at the waiting children, our hearts broke into a million pieces. Oftentimes, we would look at their age and special need because looking at their pictures hurt too much.
If you remember from my post about how we matched with Tucker, our social worker called us right before we had our fingerprints taken to ask us if we would consider a sweet little boy from Chongqing. Soon after seeing his pictures, video, and file, we said, "YES!" and Tucker became our third son.
Almost two years later, I have looked at more pictures and videos of waiting children that I can count. These children consume much of my Facebook newsfeed thanks to the advocacy efforts of the adoption community. I see blog posts on No Hands But Ours and posts by our agency with children of all ages and with every medical need you can imagine. On Christmas morning, rather than immediately seeing presents under a tree, I awoke to the picture below in my newsfeed with an accompanying video. Are you brave enough to watch 30 seconds of it? Can you get through the entire video? On Christmas morning, I honestly made it through about three minutes with tears in my eyes and had to turn it off. It is painful to see REAL children behind bars, ALONE in their cribs, in a REAL orphanage. This is real life, heart-wrenching stuff.
Relational poverty, policies within countries, disease, lack of resources, etc. have created the status of an orphan. However, all of us allow children to continue living apart from families by not inviting them into our own. Yes, Tucker is home with us, and yes, we will bring another child home, but when do we stop? When does our responsibility end? The truth is, it never will. "...Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless..." (Isaiah 1:17). God does not say, "I will call only a few people to help the orphan." God asks all of us to help these children.
"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead...I will show you my faith by my works." (James 2:14-18).
"So many won't do anything unless they hear a voice from heaven telling them precisely what to do. Why not default to action until you hear a voice from heaven telling you to wait? For example: Why not assume you should adopt kids unless you hear a voice telling you not to? Wouldn't that seem more biblical since God has told us that true religion is to care for the widows and orphans (James 1:27)?" (Francis Chan, You and Me Forever)
The fact that there are children waiting for a family is a reality that we allow. The significance and depth of that statement is not lost on me, especially at a time when I am faced with dozens of children waiting to be chosen. Their orphanages have prepared their paperwork. The governing bodies have approved their files for international adoption. Agencies has been selected to advocate for them. Now they wait to be chosen.
For our current adoption, Ryan and I are approved to adopt a boy or girl between the ages of 0-6. Because we adopting through the China Special Needs program, we had to determine which medical/special needs that our family felt capable of addressing. Our list of special needs is quite broad, as we know what a gift children with medical/specials needs are to families.
As you can imagine, I am overwhelmed by where things stand in our adoption process. To have been matched with the little boy would have been so much easier (because we loved him, felt a supernatural connection to him, and would not have to "find" our child since he was already known to us) than what we are facing, but God has not given us our desired easier road. We are faced with the reality of looking at pictures and videos and discussing special needs. We are asking ourselves, "What would it be like to parent a child who has lived in an orphanage for 5-6 years? What is it like to adopt a child without arms and how would he feel going to public school with his brothers? How would our friends and family feel if we adopted a child with HIV, and is that even something we would share with others? What would our lives look like if we adopted a child with cleft lip/palate, club feet, or thalassemia in terms of surgery, treatment, therapy, etc.?
The other day, I wrote down ten different names of children who are currently with our agency and fall within our age range and special need list. I'm sure there were many others. I found myself thinking, "Why not this kid? Why not her? Why not him?" I feel like I could choose any single one of them. They are all deserving of a family, and they all need medical care. How will we ever choose? And then, what is hurting the most right now is the fact that we are only bringing one child home. It is one thing to say yes to one child, but in doing so, we will say no to dozens of others. Some of them will be chosen, but others never will. It is heart wrenching, and I find myself wondering why all of these kids are waiting. They are all beautiful and amazing and deserving of a family, and the truth is, there are not enough families willing to adopt them. So they wait. Their pictures are posted on a list for days, weeks, months, and years. Out of the estimated 20 million orphans in China, 2,000 of them have files prepared, and they are waiting for 1 out of 7 billion people to bring them home. Of course I wish more than 2,000 children had files ready, but there aren't enough families coming forward to justify the expense of preparing them. Am I coming through to you? Does your heart break like mine? I am longing for people who share my heart.
So, today I really wanted to write about Christmas. I wanted to write about funny stories, generous gifts, and delicious food, but my heart is heavy with the decision we need to make. So many children are waiting, and I wish more families would rise up to bring them home. I am overwhelmed by the decision we have to make. Every single one of these children deserves a family, and we can only bring one home. Please God, lead us to the one you have chosen for us. Please guide us and make it so apparent that we know that this is the child you want us to bring home, just like we felt when we saw Tucker. We trust you and are willing to follow where you lead. For all of you reading, we appreciate your prayers, as we make what feels like an impossible decision and consider all the beautiful children who need families.
God Is Good All The Time
I learned on June 30, 2014 that a miracle had taken place. The child to whom I felt a strong connection was having his file prepared for international adoption, and more amazingly, once complete, his file would be distributed to our adoption agency. A week later, after many prayers and discussion, we decided that this was either our son, or he was leading us back to China for whoever our next child would be.
Since that time, we have been racing the clock. Our home study was completed in 6 weeks - record time! We received our Immigration Approval a little more than 2 months later. Our dossier was authenticated and sent to China 3 1/2 weeks after that. In the meantime, this little one's file was taking longer and longer to arrive. Naturally, our hope that he would be our son grew stronger and stronger, as the arrival of his file was aligning to possibly arrive near our next big milestone: Log In Date (LID) into China's database, which would indicate their acceptance of us as adoptive parents. As our hope grew stronger, we took the opportunity to send the little guy Christmas presents. Shopping for him was very special, and my heart ached for him like it had longed for Tucker when he still lived half a world away. I was dreaming about him at night and imagining him playing with our other three boys.
But not everything we dream will become our reality. Not all of our pursuits will end as we hope. Sometimes we fall in love only to be left mending our broken hearts.
As it turns out, the gifts we sent this precious boy will be the only contact we will ever have with him this side of heaven. After making the decision to adopt again, I initially prayed that God would allow this boy to be our son. However, knowing that there was at least one other family interested in adopting him, as well, that prayer never felt right in my heart. So, I started praying that God would place this sweet boy in the family where he would draw closest to the Lord. If growing up in a different family would lead him to love God more than he would with our family, I prayed that he would be placed with them.
And I believe that God has answered that prayer. He has chosen another family to love, adore, and raise this precious boy.
Upon hearing this news, I will be honest, I collapsed and wept in Ryan arms. My heart shattered piece by piece as I processed the fact that I would never be this little boy's mother. I would never pick him up, kiss his cheeks, or put him to bed at night. He would never play with our three boys, open birthday presents with them, or watch movies snuggled under blankets together. This beautiful, little boy would never be my son.
When I attempted to tell Ryan what our agency had shared, he told me that he heard every word. He said that he wanted to throw my phone, shield me from the words, and put me in his pocket. His heart ached for mine, while my heart ached for what we had lost. Many would agree that for men, they become fathers when they meet their children, while women become mothers during pregnancy. This has been true for us during both our pregnancies and both our adoptions. Ryan grieved mostly for me, while I grieved for the tiny one who was never coming home.
The next day when I awoke, my first thought was driven by the aching in my heart. I went to a breakfast with the women in my Bible Study group and tried to repress the sadness I felt. I wasn't ready to share the news. I volunteered in Noah's class, had lunch with him at school, and spent the rest of the day on the couch sleeping and grieving. My heart was heavy with deep sorrow, and at the same time, my mind was strong with God's Truth.
We always knew, from the very first day, that this was a possibility. We knew that God was possibly using the connection we felt to this little boy to get us back to China. And indeed, he has done just that. The only reason we are adopting again is that this little boy's file was being prepared, and it was being sent to our adoption agency (versus any other agency in the world), and we are 100% certain that we wouldn't be adopting right now otherwise. For that reason alone, we will always be grateful for this precious boy's life and the time we have loved him. It is pretty astounding that without having any knowledge of doing so, he is leading us to our next child. And there is so much beauty and wonder in that alone.
I wrote a sweet friend, an adoptive mom, to ask her to pray for me the day after hearing the news. She wrote back, "I was praying as I was putting [my daughter] to bed...asking God to give me something profound and not cliché to say to you. And all I kept hearing was, "I AM GOOD!" And you know what? She is right. God is good all the time. Even in the heartache, the brokenness, and the loss, God is always good.
I spent most of the following day pouring into my Bible, my devotional, and another book I am reading called, Straight-Up Crazy: A Call to Radical Faith that coincidentally arrived on my doorstep at the same time I learned that the little boy would not be our son. The book was a gift from the same adoptive mom I spoke of previously. The knowledge in my mind slowly began to seep into my broken heart, covering my sadness with love and truth. One line of my devotion read, "You are approaching a crossroads in your journey. In order to follow me wholeheartedly (there are those words again you guys - FOLLOW ME), you must relinquish your tendency to play it safe." The devotion contained three supporting verses:
Reading these verses and opening my heart to God's Word provided incredible comfort to me. The news we received was not intended to hurt us but to guide us deeper in our journey with Him. You see, adoption is most definitely about inviting the fatherless into your family, but adoption is also an avenue for growing more faithful and into a deeper relationship with the Lord. Despite our hope not being realized, we have complete trust in God and continue to seek Him as we navigate the unknown waters ahead. My heart has been transforming the past 2 1/2 years from someone who wanted to live a happy life to a woman who wants to serve and follow Christ above all else. In doing so, life hasn't always been comfortable or easy, but being close to the Father is right where I want to be.
The next day, my devotion read, "When your private world feels unsteady and you grip My hand for support, you are living in conscious dependence on Me...trouble can highlight your awareness of My Presence." The first supporting verse stated, "Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand" (Isaiah 41:10). The more I read, the more this knowledge poured into my heart, and I began to feel what I knew to be true. Psalm 139:10 read, "Even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me." I love the visual of that verse so, so much. In a time when we have no idea where God is taking us, He is leading us with one hand, guiding our way through the unknown, while simultaneously holding us with his other hand. As we are held, the Lord is comforting us, giving us His strength, and protecting us from harm because He loves us so much.
At the same time, we are rejoicing that this precious little boy will be loved and adored in the arms of his family! We are thankful that there is one less orphan in the world. We celebrate that He will know Christ and how much He loves him. Maybe someday this story will reach him, and he will learn how God used his life to bring another child home.
Just as we guessed, we coincidentally received our Log In Date (LID) on December 9th! Now more than ever we are curious and wondering who our child will be. Will God lead us to a 1 year old girl? A 5 year old boy? Will he have a serious heart condition? Will she need her club feet repaired? There are so many things that we do not know, but this we know for certain. God is always good, and we trust Him above all else no matter where He leads.
Mudlove Bracelet Fundraiser Results
|My dad and Danette with Liam, Tucker, and Noah
After receiving them in the mail, I wrote a blog post about the fundraiser, closed my eyes, and hit "publish." I posted the link on my personal Facebook page, as well as in several adoption groups online, and prayed. Side note: Every single time I launch something like this, I always feel a surge of doubt. How are we going to sell 100 bracelets? Are people going to feel obligated to buy them? Will people like the colors and words that we chose?
A week later, I placed a second order with MudLove for an additional 165 bracelets (60 Hope, 35 Redeemed, and 70 Be The Change). I told them that I would pay for them as soon as they sent me an invoice. However, I quickly received an email back from them stating that the invoice had already been paid. I immediately started to cry, knowing that my dad and Danette had surprised us yet again by purchasing this second order. How can you properly thank people for sacrificing their own money to help you? There were just no words for our gratitude!
|Order #2
When I posted on Facebook that I was packaging the second order, several more people wrote again to say that they hadn't ordered one yet. Many had given theirs away and wanted more. I contemplated starting a third round, unsure if we would have a minimum of 50 bracelets. In light of the upcoming holidays, I decided to take a leap of faith and open up a third round with the following words:
I asked my dad if he wanted to share anything for this blog post, and he wrote the following:
"Amy and Ryan have opened my mind and heart in a way that has been transformational. Initially, I did not understand the reason anyone would want to travel half way across the world to adopt a child. I'm still not certain I fully understand it. What I do understand is that adopting a child in need from anywhere is a good thing, a great thing, and perhaps one of the greatest gifts that a family can give. But it is also a gift where the giver (and all around them) receives the greatest gift of all – the love of a formerly abandoned child.
I'll never forget the feeling that I had when I first saw Tucker when he arrived at the airport. He looked so little and scared, but he turned my heart into mush. More amazing is to see photos comparing the day he arrived to the change that has happened over a year. It surely is amazing to think about all of the changes he went through: to having everything in his world turned upside down, to leaving his home and his nannies at the orphanage, to learning a new language, to eating new foods that were different. The beautiful miracle is watching him bond with his forever family when he initially could not have known what forever meant. He loves his forever family, and we love him!"
My dad (above in yellow shirt and gray jacket) went back to MudLove today to thank them, in person, for all that they do. He has witnessed how their work has made a positive impact on our family and wanted to express his gratitude. He even called me and put me on speakerphone, and I had the opportunity to thank everyone and share how their work has helped our family. They were so kind and encouraging and shared that hearing stories like ours gives them motivation to keep coming into work day after day.
As a reminder, MudLove gives 20% of their profit to an great organization! Thanks to each person who ordered bracelets for our fundraiser, Water For Good will provide clean water for 460 weeks (1 week per bracelet) to families living in Central Africa. How incredible is that?! After going to the Water For Good website, I learned that $40 will provide over 500 people with a month of clean water. So amazing!

subset: commoncrawl


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Petite BBW Dominatrix | Digital Siren | Whiskey & Jazz Aficionado
Petite BBW Dominatrix | Digital Siren | Whiskey & Jazz Aficionado
I'm a private dominatrix in NYC. Personally, I am a calm and friendly woman. My demeanor is warm and engaging with a flair for the dramatic. I enjoy slipping into different roles and personas, whether I am playing the part of a cruel Femdom or a teasing seductress. I will always retain my unique personality. Through sensual stimulation of all of the senses, each experience is tailored to my client's needs. I built my practice through careful consideration of emotional, physical and psychological support. Every session is intimate, authentic, and discreet.
You're a man in a position of power. I know what it's like to have to be in complete dominance and control all day. Exhausting, isn't it? Wouldn't it be nice to have an opportunity to feel powerless with no authority whatsoever? Why not take off the Commander's hat for a while and allow yourself to ride a rush of excitement? Handing over the reigns to Me without any reciprocation is a thrilling experience. I like My play things educated before approaching. It shows you follow directions and have a genuine interest in My practice. Our time together can be extraordinary, but you need to do your part to make sure we're a perfect match.
"Mistress Fox granted me the privilege of serving at Her domestic location. As soon as i entered Her domain i was intoxicated by Her scent which filled the room. The implements She had chosen for my corrections were laid out. The sight of them made my head swim..."
After familiarizing yourself with my interests and protocol, you must send your tribute to be considered for servitude. Once received, we can begin indoctrination. Only after approval can we schedule your first session and begin your life as my loyal and obedient slave.


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text:
Forums > Off-Topic Discussion > Pretty Feet
Female models and photographers of female models:
For models: If you feel that your feet are particularly attractive, post an image here.
Photographers: If you've photographed a model with pretty feet, then feel free to post the image.
I see from the variety of lists that appear on my port that there are a lot off MM'ers that find them sexy and attractive............and maybe by posting an image here it will drive traffic to your port. It will also give me an opportunity to see what's out there and perhaps plan a visit to your area.
Looking forward to viewing your contributions.
PS: updated........anyone can contribute
Mar 23 11 04:53 am Link
Posts: 873
Louth, England, United Kingdom
feet are strange things.
some people love them and find them sexualy stimulating, yet other find them totaly gross and would walk around on their stumps if they could.
your either a fetish or a phobia with them
Mar 23 11 05:57 am Link
Posts: 728
Atlanta, Georgia, US
Mar 23 11 06:01 am Link
Posts: 4790
Newport Beach, California, US
I love some pretty feet in sandals
Mar 23 11 06:35 am Link
Posts: 46866
Howell, Michigan, US
Mar 23 11 06:46 am Link
MO Rotica wrote:
Mar 23 11 03:24 pm Link
-Jen- wrote:
Colin is the only other photographer that I know of that is doing something unique and artistic with the female foot. I admire his work and had the pleasure of meeting him a few months ago..........we are in the same city........just imagine a collaboration between me and him.......WOW !
Mar 23 11 03:27 pm Link
Posts: 6319
MCDONOUGH, Georgia, US
BODYSHOP FEETURES wrote:
Thank you. Yes, I can always count on you to list one of my foot pics! Thanks for the compliments!
Mar 23 11 03:32 pm Link
-Jen- wrote:
That trip of yours is soon right?
MO Rotica wrote:
Posts: 11863
Los Angeles, California, US
I've done quite a few paid foot fetish shoots
Mar 24 11 12:04 am Link
Posts: 11760
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Mar 24 11 01:14 am Link
BrooklynHill wrote:
I agree, but yet you have none in your port.........GREAT PORT anyway.
Mar 24 11 04:46 am Link
Mar 24 11 04:57 am Link
Posts: 28
Boston, Massachusetts, US
Mar 24 11 05:05 am Link
Posts: 189
New Windsor, New York, US
Leila, awesome shot and your feet do look great!
Mar 24 11 06:19 am Link
Posts: 637
Nashville, Tennessee, US
I should hope I have pretty feet, I've done 3 shoe commercials (for sandal type shoes)
No picture though sorry
Mar 24 11 06:25 am Link
Posts: 5227
Detroit, Michigan, US
I love shooting foot focused work. Unfortunately not a lot in my port
http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/19243845 (18+)
http://www.modelmayhem.com/portfolio/pic/19939687 (18+) - this one isn't foot focused, but it does show the shape pretty well
Mar 24 11 07:06 am Link
Posts: 4829
Birmingham, Alabama, US
There are quite a few foot shots in my port (I'd post links but I've just had shoulder surgery, so I can only type with one hand).
Mar 24 11 07:22 am Link
I've got some shots in the port...the goal with a lot of content I have is to get a good paysite going
Mar 24 11 10:27 am Link
Posts: 4790
Newport Beach, California, US
BODYSHOP FEETURES wrote:
Going to find some pretty feet NOW!
Mar 24 11 10:37 am Link
Posts: 14388
London, England, United Kingdom
Mar 24 11 11:05 am Link
Posts: 33451
The Woodlands, Texas, US
David-Thomas wrote:
Mar 24 11 11:15 am Link
Mar 24 11 03:08 pm Link
Dekilah wrote:
I listed the first one a while ago.........we need to arrange a shoot soon, you're not too far from me.
Mar 24 11 03:10 pm Link
Posts: 242
Ladysmith, Virginia, US
Mar 25 11 08:50 am Link
New work posted to my port. Check it out, if so inclined :-)
Posts: 2704
Fort Worth, Texas, US
Post hidden on Apr 06, 2011 10:27 pm
Reason: 18+ Images
Mar 25 11 01:18 pm Link
Post hidden on Apr 06, 2011 10:27 pm
Reason: 18+ Images
Quoted 18+
Mar 25 11 02:43 pm Link
Posts: 79
Sacramento, California, US
BODYSHOP FEETURES wrote:
Hey! My ol' buddy Colin is not the ONLY one! lol
Mar 25 11 06:02 pm Link
IBY Studios wrote:
Oh there's quite a few more that aren't so out there about it...but we're around
Mar 25 11 09:14 pm Link
Posts: 7657
Winchester, Virginia, US
j3_photo wrote:
So come out already
Mar 25 11 09:23 pm Link
Posts: 3606
Temple City, California, US
I love a model with Fred Flintstone feet.
Collin J. Rae wrote:
Oh it's no secret...you can tell by my port and I have replied in the threads also my bio
IBY Studios wrote:
oh dear............I should have worded that better.........of course there are others........
Mar 26 11 07:13 am Link
Posts: 1265
New York, New York, US
Mar 26 11 07:19 am Link
Posts: 116
Hudson, New Hampshire, US
Some of my own shots (marked 18+, just to be safe)
Mar 26 11 07:22 am Link
Mar 26 11 08:50 am Link
Bottom Time Photo wrote:
Thanx for sharing........it's too bad the model has opted out of lists.
Mar 26 11 08:54 am Link


text:
Cooking with wine is very common. But, did you know that there are many recipes that can also benefit from the addition of beer? That's right, if you aren't accustomed to cooking with beer, you really should add this frosty beverage to your seasoning repertoire.
Just like with wine, when cooking with beer, the alcohol dissipates, leaving only the flavor of the beer behind. And, since beers come in a wide variety of flavor nuances, there are many different foods that improve with its influence.
There are three primary ways to use beer in cooking. It makes a great marinade for meat. It tenderizes beautifully, and leaves a wonderful flavor behind. Beer is also great as a liquid for basting meats during baking, roasting or broiling. It will help keep the meat from drying out and will help improve the flavor. It also adds great flavor when simmered in soups and stews.
Finally, beer can be used as the liquid in baked goods like breads, biscuits and even pancakes. Beer gives baked goods an exceptional lightness.
Cooking With Beer – Choosing The Right Beer
There are so many different beers on the market, it can be difficult to choose one to use for cooking. The first rule, however, of cooking with beer is that you like the beer. When the alcohol cooks away, the flavor of the beer is left in the food. If you use a beer you don't like, it's likely you won't like it in the food either.
Lighter beers can be used in a wide variety of foods, including chili, beef stew and pork roast. Darker beers and stouts should be used for heavier foods, like marinating steaks or cooking game meat, such as venison.
It is important to remember that the flavors of the beer will concentrate as the food cooks. Therefore, you would want a sweeter beer for gravy or other food that was to be reduced drastically, while you could use a stronger beer in a soup or stew, because more of the liquid will remain. When "hoppy" beers are reduced too much, they can leave a bitter taste to the food.
Experiment to Your Heart's Content
Feel free to experiment to your heart's content. When it comes to cooking with beer, the only really important rule is that you like the taste. You'll find there are many ways to add unique flavors to your favorite foods with beer.


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Shuttle Bus Drivers
- Recruiter
- Time Recruitment
- Location
- Slough, England
- Salary
- £10.5
- Posted
- 20 Apr 2017
- Closes
- 23 Apr 2017
Time Recruitment are looking for professional minibus and bus drivers with full CPC to work on several Bus driver contracts servicing the Bus industry in the Oxford area. This is an established Bus company that is still growing with the opportunity for growth and promotion potential that is going in the right direction and one of the leaders in the PCV/PSV world. Successful candidates will join a friendly, Professional and welcoming team.The Bus driver role involves:- Monday-Friday Rota- All year round driving- Temporary to Permanent Contract- Operating Single/ Double Decker buses- 12-13 Hours a day Suitable Bus driver Candidates must:- Have a valid PCV (D) License- Have Full CPC (Driver Qualification Card)- Minimum of 6 months experience driving buses- Excellent customer service skills- Have no more than 6 points on driver's license (No DRS, CDS and TT99)This is an excellent opportunity for Bus drivers not to be missed. Please send in your CV as soon as possible to be contacted for an interview.Time RecruitmentTime is your only resource


text:
CBS News 1994: Mugabe Reassures White South Africans
In the week prior to South Africa's first all-race elections, South African whites were feeling a bit gloomy about the future. Luckily, CBS's Dan Rather was able to bring good tidings from that bastion of hope, love and freedom, Zimbabwe.
And everyone felt much better after Robert Mugabe's reassurance. Thanks Bob!
[CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and Connie Chung]


text:
Teaching speaking through discussion (43476)Посмотреть архив целиком
Teaching speaking through discussion
Olga Baran
a fourth year student
of the English department
Larysa Viktorivna Lemeshchuk
an assistant professor
of the English department
1. Chapter 1. Fundamental considerations in teaching writing essays
1.1 The importance of writing essays
1.2 Basic principles of teaching writing essays: writing techniques and stages
1.3.organization of the essays. Essay structure
2. Chapter 2
2.1 Types of essays. Essay samples
2.2 Punctuation. Word choice
2.3 Linking words and phrases
2.4 Plagiarism
Written communication has become extremely important for interaction in the modern world with the instant technological development. Recently writing assessments and essays have become a vital part of a formal education. Secondary students are taught to structure their compositions in order to improve their writing skills. Both in secondary and tertiary education, essays are used to judge the mastery and comprehension of material. Students are asked to explain, comment on or assess a topic of study in the form of an essay.
What is an essay? Essay is a short piece of writing on a particular subject which presents the author's point of view. It is an organized set of ideas and reflections. This presentation of views must be done in a logical and factual manner with the use of the first person often discouraged. The leading essayist Aldous Huxley defines essay in the following way - "Like the novel, the essay is a literary device for saying almost everything about almost anything, usually on a certain topic. By tradition, almost by definition, the essay is a short piece, and it is therefore impossible to give all things full play within the limits of a single essay. But a collection of essays can cover almost as much ground, and cover it almost as thoroughly, as can a long novel". The word "essay" originated from French word "essai" which means "effort, sketch". It reflects the essence of this notion. It is a personal attempt to give a challenging sketch on certain issues. Every attempt is different and presents versatile ideas, but people must not be afraid of writing even knowing that it is too complicated to express themselves in a proper way.
Essay should be structured in various sections that make it easy for the readers to read and follow the author's thoughts clearly. To show your grasp of the ideas studied learners have to express them in their own words. Writing essays is not the easy task. Nevertheless, it is a good way to stimulate learning and critical thinking that makes writing a valuable part of any language course. It enables learners to display the skills and abilities which they possess and remaining an important method of assessment, helps to discriminate between students, to test their intellectual capabilities. Raimes points out "Writing helps students to learn. Firstly, it reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms, and vocabulary that teachers have been teaching their students. Secondly, when students write, they also have a chance to be adventurous with the language, to go beyond what they have just learned. Thirdly, when students write, they necessarily become very involved with the new language [14, p.58]
Professor Roy Wilkinson has identified a pyramid of skills which teachers try to test with the help of essay assignment.
Tarvers explains that "Writing is a powerful instrument of thought. In the act of composing, writers learn about themselves and their world and communicate their insights to others. Writing confers the power to grow personally and to effect change in the world" [18, p.45] Moreover, the skill of writing essays is an essential tool in achieving the desirable grade in the courses studied. The basic essay-writing skills are not that difficult to acquire. The reason why so many students fail to do this is that not enough attention has been paid to teaching them. It is inevitable that schools, colleges and universities spend most of their time teaching the core subject-matter of a course, but hardly any time in advising students how to put their ideas down on paper in the form of an essay. Hedge points out that writing has been a neglected area of English language teaching for some years [11, p.101]. However, when people write down an account of ideas for others to read, they have to explain themselves particularly carefully. The leaps made while talking are not allowed. This makes writing probably the most challenging aspect of studying. White and Amdt promote that "Writing is a form of problem-solving which involves such processes as generating ideas, discovering a voice with which to write, planning, goal-setting, monitoring and evaluating what is going to be written as well as what has been written and searching for language with which to express exact meanings" [20, p.92].
The difficulties in writing essays as well as the process of teaching writing essays show the object of this course paper. The subject lies in the set of skills and hints for teaching learners to write better compositions. This coursework comprises the following tasks:
to specify the structure of the essay and stages in writing it;
to clarify the skills and habits necessary for the learners to write properly, clearly and persuasively, and to present the viewpoint forcefully in writing;
to show the importance of practicing writing topic and concluding sentences, organizing the paragraphs coherently, using appropriate vocabulary, transitional devices and grammar;
to apply key writing structures to learners' writing;
to develop strategies for writing, revising, and editing texts that are based on audience and purpose;
to make students aware of the impact of their choice of words, sentences and organizational techniques on the effectiveness of writing.
Learning solid essay writing skills while in school is the foundation for even the most basic education. Thus, many students do not have the slightest idea on how to begin a creative writing and how to express their thoughts. It is important for learners not to suppress their ideas, they should think widely, in various directions. The practical value lies in helping people to order their essays, to display their knowledge in the well-structured way due to the standards of essay writing, to provoke the learners to write and to believe in their own abilities, the originality and validity of their thoughts. In addition to this, essay writing is a part of a sequence designed to develop specific discourse skills.
1. Chapter 1. Fundamental considerations in teaching writing essays
1.1 The importance of writing essays
Language learning requires mastering the four basic skills a language consists of. Thus there is not only the awareness of grammatical, lexical or syntactic rules needed but the writing process demands also mental power of the writer. Writing is an effective tool to use for different purposes from sharing ideas, corresponding to persuading others. Through writing people articulate their ideas in another way than in speaking, their written product can be much more expressive and powerful. Written works are permanent; they may have an impact much later in time. Tarvers claims that "The purposes for writing vary widely, from discovering the writer's own feelings, to persuading others to a course of action, recreating experience imaginatively, reporting the results of observation, and more" [18, p.48]. Having such potential, learners should be taught all the necessary rules and conventions of writing as a skill to express themselves in the most appropriate way. Therefore writing deserves an equal part in the classroom of learning language skills. Nowadays more attention is paid to speaking and listening, developing writing skills seem to be a deprived area. White mentions that "For some time, under the influence of the audio-lingual approach to language teaching, it has been conventional wisdom to regard speech as being of primary importance, with writing being placed a poor second. Writing was regarded as being a somewhat inferior form of the language" [20, p.57]. It is no longer seen as simply a means to retell or recount information, but as a unique way to internalize and expand upon specific knowledge, to retain the information, integrate it into the existing knowledge. Neither a multiple choice test nor short answer quiz can provide students with the opportunities to develop the kind of critical evaluative skills a thorough writing assignment can. Robert Kellogg states " [Writing] is a vehicle for expanding and transforming one's own knowledge base. [It] not only demands thinking, it is also a means for thinking. By writing about a subject, one learns what one thinks about the subject. This property of transforming knowledge is a fundamental component of writing skill" [12, p.214]. Writing essays teaches students to research, plan, organize and structure their activities.
1.2 Basic principles of teaching writing essays: writing techniques and stages
Writing is an exercise of mind requiring the mastery of techniques anyone can learn. While one system may work better for some and worse for others; there are several general rules to stick to. There are many aspects that a student will have to keep in mind. The first important thing to do is to examine the title of the topic. It can be assigned or not. Sometimes it is easier to have the topic given by the teacher. On the other hand, it may be an advantage to take the topic you want. Both have their pros and cons because there are so many things to write about that you may get lost. When the topic has been assigned, you have some definite sphere to work on. Each topic can be seen from various viewpoints. The student, however, should choose the one which is neither too narrow (it will not have enough ideas to write about) nor too broad. Medecine is too general. You can take only one aspect to discuss - Euthanasia in medical practice. Then you must think about the purpose and the audience of the essay. The writer should understand the key words which will help to gather thoughts, to decide on the writing style and give some hints. It is a good rule always to write the title of the essay across the top of the opening page. It reminds you what you are supposed to be doing. An essay can be good in almost every other way and may be judged poor because it ignores the issues presented in the title. You are never just asked to write all you know about a subject, or simply describe something. You are set a specific problem to reflect upon in the light of what you have been studying. Everything you say in the essay should be relevant to that task. You have to convince your readers that the point has some bearing on the title.
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text:
|Heart Purification Potion
|Owned by:
| Catherine Schade
Sean Renard
|Heart purification
|TV Show:
|"The Kiss"
The Heart Purification Potion is used for purifying one's heart. Only the pure of heart can awaken someone under a sleeping spell, and if the one who wishes to perform this task is not pure of heart, they need only to drink this potion. However, the process of being made pure of heart can be absolutely excruciating, depending on the person taking the potion. The ingredients are valued at $300. ("The Kiss")
- 2 bulbs hemlock root
- Pinch of Myrrh resin
- 6 oz. Lausenschlange oil
- Vial of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (a disease-causing bacterium)
- Handful of Mullein
- Several clumps of Gum arabic
"Mix the first three ingredients in the order listed over high heat until boiling. Handle the Pseudomonas Aeruginosa with care as it is highly potent. Add several drops at a time, stirring constantly until a faint pink hue appears. Add the remaining two ingredients. The Gum Arabic will cause the potion to thicken and turn light pink or white. Allow the mixture to boil several minutes more, then remove from heat and bottle tightly to avoid losing potency in the evaporating steam.
To wake the sleeping subject, he who kisses her must be pure of heart. This potion must be fully ingested by he who intends to undo the spell.
He must drink all of the potion in one sitting, several hours before the kiss is to take place -but not more than twenty four hours before, or the potion will wear off.
The purification process can be painful depending on how unpure he who drinks it is prior to the process." ("Spice Shop at NBC")
Side EffectsEdit
If the user of the heart purification potion kisses someone under the influence of L'esprit ailleurs, both the purified user and the one who's kissed may be afflicted with a side effect that causes a dangerous attraction to occur between the two. The only known cure for this side effect is a blended mixture similar to the heart purification potion: an Infatuation Cure.


text:
No approved endorsements
About Mr. Matthew Widby
As the owner of Michigans Largest Promotional Modeling & Marketing Agency I have become an expert in customer satisfaction in the Promotional Industry. Anything from beer and Liquor companies up to Automotive Manufacturers, I am thouroughly aware of each and everyones expectations. My company, DBC America LLC. Can , Has and Will provide a service of product representation to the level of class you deserve.
DBC America LLC.
Promotional Modeling & Marketing Agency
If you notice offensive or incorrect information, please contact us.


text:
On Demand Courses
Entrepreneur Boot Camp
A 90-day course, designed to help you build the essential bootstrapping, cash flow and operational skills every aspiring entrepreneur needs at the beginning of their journey. Boot Camp asks fundamental questions to assist you in identifying your strengths, understanding your relationship with money, and destroying mental barriers that fuel "wantrepreneurship."
Dates: Ongoing (12 weeks)
Price: $295
Cash & Valuation 101
Being able to count cash and assess value is critical to entrepreneurial success. Learn the practical skills required to coordinate, control and fund the sales and operations of an entrepreneurial business. The key question this introductory course will explore is: "Are you making investment, operational, and financial decisions that maximize the value of the firm and your equity?"
Dates: Ongoing (8 weeks)
Price: $195
Operations 101
This course provides an introduction to the fundamental tools and techniques of operations management, allowing you to stand between Sales and Operations, whilst juggling the difficult trade-offs needed to build and grow a profitable business. Learn to predict how changes to a process will affect output, cost and profit, so you can make incremental improvements to an operation.
Dates: Ongoing (8 weeks)
Price: $195
Customers & Sales 101 – Coming Soon
The Customers course delivers the tools, skills and judgment you will need to identify your customer's needs, create and price products to satisfy those needs, determine the size of markets and how quickly you will penetrate them, locate customers, convince them to buy your product or service, and provide service after the sale.
Dates: Ongoing (8 weeks)
Price: $195


text:
Maple-Pumpkin Sauté
Recipe by Chef George S.
A side dish -- goes really well with pork or ham roasts From Cooking Light, OCTOBER 1997 Original recipe called for Red Delicious apple, but they are too soft -- use any crisp apple
Top Review by MathMom.calif
Yummy. Nice and simple. I cooked it in my 10-inch cast-iron skillet. Following directions, medium high for nearly 20 minutes, it became quite soft...almost mushy. I think I turned it down a bit and cut the time a little short. But it was good. Instead of ginger I used Trader Joe's pumpkin pie spice and I increased the raisins to about a half cup (didn't really measure...just tossed a couple of handfuls in). Entire family liked this. Served it alongside a pork loin roast with steamed green beans. I think this would work well with any winter squash, such as butternut, kobacha, delicata, etc...
Ingredients Nutrition
- 1 1⁄2 lbs fresh pumpkin, cubed & peeled (4 cups)
- 1 1⁄2 cups apples, chopped
- 1⁄2 cup onion, finely chopped
- 1⁄3 cup raisins
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
- 1⁄4 teaspoon ground ginger
Directions See How It's Made
- Melt butter in a large non-stick skillet.
- Combine the next 4 ingredients in the skillet and cover.
- Cook over medium-high heat 20 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in syrup, salt, and ginger.