Dettes et santé mentale : perspective de genre

Abstract

The effect of debt on health remains little studied, and the gender perspective is rarely mobilized. This article aims to better understand the gendered effect of arrears - a particularly problematic and prevalent type of debt - on the mental health of women and men by testing different explanatory hypotheses. Using data from the Swiss Household Panel, we show that women in debt have the poorest mental health, but that the occurrence of arrears does not affect them more than men. However, certain sub-groups of women are more affected. In this sense, the gendered effect of debt on mental health is more related to an accumulation of social inequalities than to the existence of gendered dispositions towards debt, which underlines the interest of the intersectional approach.

Keywords

• mental health
• inequalities
• longitudinal analysis
• panel
• debt
• gender.