Background: Coeliac disease might affect school performance due to its effect on cognitive performance and related health consequences that might increase school absenteeism. The aim of this study was to investigate whether children with coeliac disease performed differently on completion of ninth grade in school compared with children without coeliac disease.

Methods: Analysis was performed on a population of 445 669 children born in Sweden between 1991 and 1994 of whom 1767 were diagnosed with coeliac disease. School performance at ninth grade was the outcome and coeliac disease was the exposure. Other covariates included sex, Apgar score at 5 min, small for gestational age, year of birth, family type, parental education and income.

Results: There was no association between coeliac disease and school performance at ninth grade (adjusted coefficient -2.4, 95% CI 5.1 to 0.4). A weak association was established between late coeliac diagnosis and higher grades, but this disappeared after adjusting for parent socioeconomic conditions. Being small for gestational age affected performance negatively (adjusted coefficient -6.9, 95% CI 8.0 to 5.7). Grade scores were significantly lower in children living with a single parent (adjusted coefficient -20.6, 95% CI 20.9 to 20.2), compared with those with married/cohabiting parents. A positive association was found between scores at ninth grade and parental education and income.

Conclusion: Coeliac disease diagnosis during childhood is not associated with poor school performance at ninth grade.

Labor market insecurities have been growing in Europe and previous research has illustrated that unemployment and insecure jobs negatively affect individuals’ well-being and health. Although empirical evidence suggests that these effects vary substantially across different welfare states, we still know little about the moderating role of specific labor market policies. Taking a cross-national comparative perspective, this article investigates how passive and active labor market policies (PLMP, ALMP) as well as employment protection legislation (EPL) shape the experience of unemployment and insecure jobs. We complement micro data of round 1–6 (2002–2012) of the European Social Survey with time-varying macro indicators of PLMP, ALMP, and EPL. The data include about 89,000 individuals nested in 112 country-rounds and 26 countries respectively. We apply three-level random intercept models as well as pooled linear regression models including country fixed effects. The results show that labor market policies are important in shaping the experience of unemployment, but are less relevant for workers in insecure jobs. Specifically, higher unemployment benefit generosity buffers the negative effects of unemployment on well-being but not health. Moreover, we discuss different interpretations for the finding that higher ALMP expenditures are associated with more negative effects of unemployment on well-being and health. With respect to EPL it is found that in countries with high insider protection, deregulating the restrictions on the use of temporary employment increases the negative effects of unemployment on well-being and health.

Comparative studies of health inequalities have largely neglected age and ageing aspects, while ageing research has often paid little attention to questions of social inequalities. This article investigates cross-country differences in gradients in self-rated health and limiting long-standing illness (LLSI) in middle-aged and in older people (aged 50–64 and 65–80 years) linked to social class, and degrees to which the social health gradients are associated with minimum pension levels and expenditure on elderly care. For these purposes, data from the European Social Survey (2002–2010) are analysed using multilevel regression techniques. We find significant cross-level interaction effects between class and welfare policies: higher expenditure on elderly care and particularly more generous minimum pensions are associated with smaller health inequalities in the older age group (65–80 years). It is concluded that welfare policies moderate the association between social class and health, highlighting the importance of welfare state efforts for older persons, who are strongly reliant on the welfare state and welfare state arrangements such as pensions and care policies.

Background: Education profoundly affects adult socioeconomic status, so it is important to ensure that all children have the capability and opportunity to achieve educational goals.Aims: The study aimed to examine the relationship between mental-health during adolescence and upper secondary school completion and grades, which has received comparatively little research attention to date.Method: Longitudinal administrative and registered data were used to analyse the relationship between school achievement and prescriptions of psycholeptic and psycho-analeptic drugs. The sample consisted of all children born in Sweden in 1990 (n=109223), who were followed from birth to age 20. Logistic and OLS regressions were performed separately for boys and girls, controlling for birth health and family characteristics.Results: A negative relationship between mental-health problems and educational outcomes was found; this result was almost independent of the controls. Only minor differences between the sexes were detected.Conclusions: Poor mental-health during childhood correlated negatively with educational attainment. Given the strong link between educational success and adult life, more resources are needed to support children with mental-health problems.

Proposed theories to explain gender inequality in the labor market and family, such as gender specialization within families and gender segregation in the labor markets, lack consideration for individual preferences. Preference theory accounts for individual choice and gendered preferences but has been substantially criticized, indicating a need for further research. This study uses Swedish longitudinal data to explore how preferences for work and family relate to behavior. We explore three critical issues raised in previous research: gender differences in preferences; the relationship between work and family changes and subsequent preferences; how preferences relate to work and family behaviors. Our results showed small general gender differences in preferences, although women had a stronger preference for both children and work than men. Changes in work status were further related to changes in work preferences, while changes in family status were related to changes in family preferences. Moreover, preferences had poor predictive power in relation to work and family behaviors. Our results indicate that preferences do not explain gender inequality in Sweden. The relationship between preferences and behaviors seems bidirectional and preferences and behavior within the family sphere has little to do with preferences and behavior within the work sphere.

Previous research shows that the self-employed generally experience a higher degree of job satisfaction compared to regular employees. However, our knowledge of subjective well-being among the self-employed, the differences between various groups of self-employed and the potential influence of contextual factors is somewhat limited. The purpose of the present paper is to address this gap by taking macroeconomic conditions, gender and immigrant status into consideration. The results show that self-employment is positively related to subjective well-being, but there are also differences between groups of the self-employed; self-employed with employees report a higher level of life satisfaction than the self-employed without employees. Economic growth is more important for the level of life satisfaction among the self-employed than among employees. The analyses also point to different patterns for female and male self-employed without employees: only women experience a higher level of life satisfaction compared to employees. The results also show that the relationship is stronger among immigrants than natives. The results of this study confirm the importance of considering potential heterogeneity when examining subjective well-being among the self-employed.

Little is known about the importance of personality traits for subjective well-being (SWB) and job satisfaction among self-employed. The aim of this article is to investigate if the Big-Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience) have different relationships with SWB and job satisfaction among self-employed compared with regular employees. Data come from a Swedish survey comprising representative samples of self-employed (n = 2483) and regular employees (n = 2642). Personality traits are measured using a 10-item personality measure. Our findings show that there are only small differences, between self-employed and regular employees, in the associations between personality traits and SWB. For job satisfaction, on the other hand, we find much stronger relationships for self-employed than the regularly employed. For self-employed, every personality trait except ‘openness to experience’ have a significant positive relationship with job satisfaction. In comparison, only ‘extraversion’ and ‘emotional stability’ are significantly correlated to job satisfaction among regular employees. The relationship between ‘extraversion’ and job satisfaction was furthermore substantially weaker among regular employees. Therefore, being self-employed seems to be particularly beneficial for individuals scoring high on ‘extraversion,’ ‘agreeableness,’ and ‘conscientiousness.’

Self-employment is often discussed in terms of 'push' and 'pull' factors. The aim of this article is to assess not only the prevalence of 'necessity' self-employed and 'latent' entrepreneurs in Sweden, but also the characteristics in terms of socio-demography, personality traits, intrinsic work motivation and preference for independence associated with each group. In addition, the article investigates whether 'necessity' self-employment and 'latent' entrepreneurship are related to four measures of well-being. This is done using a nationally representative survey of the self-employed (small-business owners, n = 2,483) and regularly employed (n = 2,642) in Sweden. The main findings indicate that 'necessity' self-employed have characteristics and preferences that differ from other (non-'necessity') self-employed. They display relatively low intrinsic work motivation and preference for independence as well as scores on personality traits typically associated with entrepreneurship. They also report lower levels of work autonomy, job-satisfaction, life satisfaction and family-life satisfaction than other self-employed. 'Latent' entrepreneurs resemble entrepreneurs in many ways but they nevertheless report lower levels of well-being than non-'necessity' self-employed.