The Effect of Fixed-Term Employment on Well-Being: Disentangling the Micro-Mechanisms and the Moderating Role of Social Cohesion

Table 3 Pooled linear regression models with mediation analyses for the effect of fixed-term employment compared to unemployment.

	M1	M2	M3	M4	M5	M6
Dependent variable	θ	Θ	Θ	Θ	Θ	Θ
Subjective well-being	(t-value)	(t-value)	(t-value)	(t-value)	(t-value)	(t-value)
Fixed-term employment	.581***	.560***	.447***	.085	.582***	.129
Fixed-term employment	(5.75)	(4.48)	(3.93)	(.75)	(4.49)	(1.18)
\( \Delta_{i} \), mechanism		.021	.134***	.496***	− .001	.452***
(z-value)		(1.09)	(3.18)	(8.20)	(− .43)	(7.76)
Social contacts (Ref.: never)
< Than once a month		.817***				.678*
< Than once a month		(2.66)				(2.02)
Once a month		1.533***				.883*
Once a month		(3.57)				(2.04)
Several times a month		1.935***				1.183***
Several times a month		(5.30)				(3.12)
Once a week		2.062***				1.197***
Once a week		(5.98)				(3.40)
Several times a week		2.312***				1.455***
Several times a week		(6.21)				(3.89)
Every day		2.070***				1.432***
Every day		(5.63)				(3.93)
Status			.564***			.407***
Status			(11.91)			(14.63)
Feeling about income (Ref.: very difficult)
Living comfortably				3.414***		2.365***
Living comfortably				(12.09)		(12.79)
Coping				2.453***		1.751***
Coping				(9.70)		(11.77)
Difficult				1.236***		.820***
Difficult				(6.80)		(5.88)
Activity					− .021	− .019
Activity					(− .71)	(− .81)
n	3862	3862	3862	3862	3862	3862
N	23	23	23	23	23	23
BIC	18,078	17,981	17,328	17,357	18,086	16,929

Coefficients from linear regression models averaging over all countries with cluster-robust standard errors for the macro-level (dependent variable: well-being, scale-points). Micro-level control variables included (education, social background, gender, age, migration). Table 1 provides information on included variables
*p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001