Poverty, Material Hardship, and Mental Health among Workers in Three Front-Line Service Occupations

Many studies document links between income poverty, material hardship, and mental health; however, we know less about the mental health consequences of within-person changes in income poverty and material hardship, particularly for low-income workers. The authors examine these relationships with longitudinal data from a sample of frontline service workers interviewed in two cities (one each in the United States and Canada). Mixed-effects regression models show between-and within-person differences in income poverty are associated with changes in material hardship, and between-and within-person differences in material hardship are associated with poorer mental health and depression.