Pinka Chatterji, PhD¹, Margarita Alegria, PhD¹, Mingshan Lu², and David Takeuchi, PhD³. (1) Center for Multicultural Mental Health Research, Cambridge Health Alliance, 120 Beacon Street, 4th Floor, Somerville, MA 02143, 617-503-8447, malegria@charesearch.org, (2) Department of Economics and Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, University of Calgary, 2500 University Dr NW, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada, (3) University of Washington, 4101 15th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105-6299

This paper investigates the effect of psychiatric disorders on current employment, the number of weeks worked in the past year, and the number of work absences in the past month among Latino Americans. Data come from the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS). We use multiple regression methods and instrumental variables models to estimate the association between psychiatric disorders and labor market outcomes. Psychiatric disorders are represented by four dummy variables indicating whether or not the respondent met diagnostic criteria for substance abuse/dependence, major depression, anxiety, or any mental disorder in the past 12 months. The models include controls for race/ethnicity, age, education, marital status, foreign born, and the number of children. All psychiatric disorders analyzed have a negative impact on the probability of being currently employed. Among males, having a psychiatric disorder is associated with a 16 to 37% reduction in the probability of being employed. Among females, having a psychiatric disorder is associated with a 14 to 25% reduction in the probability of being employed. However, among employed males and females, psychiatric disorders do not have a statistically significant association with work absences or the number of weeks worked in the past year. This paper provides some of the first evidence regarding the social costs of mental disorders among Latino Americans. The findings imply that improving access to effective mental health screening and treatment among Latinos may have benefits in the labor market.

Learning Objectives:

• To understand how mental disorders impact labor market success among Latino Americans.

Keywords: Latino, Mental Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.