BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1601463
Employment and the Youth Mental Health Crisis in Canada: Distinct Influences Across Phases of the School-to-Work Transition
Provisionally accepted
Véronique Dupéré1,2,3*
Mathieu Caron-Diotte1,2Nancy Beauregard2,4
Clémentine Courdi1,2Jiseul Sophia Ahn1,2Élizabeth Olivier5
Kristel Tardif-Grenier6
David Litalien7- 1École de psychoéducation, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
- 2Centre de recherche en santé publique (CReSP), Montréal, Quebec, Canada
- 3Institut universitaire Jeunes en difficultés, Montréal, Canada
- 4École de relations industrielles, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
- 5Département de pédagogie et d’andragogie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
- 6Département de Psychoéducation et de Psychologie, Université du Québec Outaouais, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada
- 7École de counseling et d’orientation et Département des fondements et pratiques en éducation, Laval University, Quebec, Quebec, Canada
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Word count: 250 (max. 250) Objectives. Employment-related challenges and uncertainties are thought to contribute to the mental health crisis affecting young adults globally. Yet, few studies have examined how employment characteristics relate to young adults' mental health. This study addresses this gap, considering how the role of employment might vary depending on young adults' educational status and level.A representative sample of 6,700 young adults (18-30 y.o.) drawn from Statistics Canada's Longitudinal and International Study of Adults (2012-2020) was used to examine links between working hours and employment in a study-related job and mental health (life satisfaction, global mental health, psychological distress), beyond prior mental health and background characteristics. Interactions with student status were also incorporated.Results. Among young adults in tertiary (university, college) education, mental health worsened as working hours increased. For all other participants, the opposite was observed: working more hours was associated with improved mental health. Overall, the best outcomes were observed among tertiary-enrolled students not working, and the worst among youth neither working nor in education. The size of the differences between these groups were non-negligible (with d ranging between .37 and .47). Across all groups, employment in a study-related job was marginally associated with higher life satisfaction (but not with psychological distress or global mental health).Working hours contribute to young adults' mental health in contrasting ways, depending on their position on the school-to-work transition continuum. Enhancing young adults' access to meaningful employment in study-related jobs with an adapted schedule could help mitigate the youth mental health crisis.
Keywords: young adults, Mental Health, Employment, School-to-work-transition, Education
Received: 28 Mar 2025; Accepted: 11 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Dupéré, Caron-Diotte, Beauregard, Courdi, Ahn, Olivier, Tardif-Grenier and Litalien. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Véronique Dupéré, École de psychoéducation, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
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