The Benefits of Work: A Meta-analysis of the Latent Deprivation and Agency Restriction Models

Despite conclusive evidence about the positive impact of working relative to unemployment for psychological well-being, there remains much uncertainty about why working relates to improved well-being. Two theoretical perspectives that have often been contrasted in examinations of this question are the latent deprivation model and the agency restriction model. The former emphasizes (latent) psychological benefits of work (time structure, collective purpose, social contact, social status, and enforced activity), asserting that lower well-being in unemployment is due to the deprivation of access to these benefits. The latter emphasizes the monetary (manifest) benefit of work, asserting that it is the financial strain caused by lacking income that is primarily responsible for restricting agency and lowering well-being in unemployment. Here, we integrate these theories with a meta-analysis based on 90 primary studies/sources, 1147 effect sizes, and 69,723 people. Results support a unified account of these theories: employment provides access to all of these psychological and monetary benefits of work, and each benefit is significantly associated with lower psychological distress and higher life satisfaction. The monetary benefit was especially strongly related to life satisfaction. Meta-analytic structural equation modeling revealed that the benefits (except for enforced activity) fully mediated the effect of employment status on psychological distress; in contrast, only collective purpose, social status, and financial strain partially mediated the effect of employment status on life satisfaction. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research and for individuals, organizations, and policymakers to improve the experience of employment and mollify the harms of unemployment.