A cross-sectional study was carried out to compare psychiatric impairment in young unemployed men and apprentices from Sydney's western suburbs. The unemployed men were found to have a psychiatric case rate (as defined by the GHQ) of 48% as against a rate of 28% for the apprentices. Comparisons of the unemployed men and apprentices on other measures indicated that they did not differ in physical health nor in the value they attached to work. The unemployed, however, were older on average, less well educated and had experienced a poorer quality of parental upbringing than the apprentices. A log-linear analysis revealed that the adverse effects of unemployment on mental health were not attributable to poor quality of upbringing.
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