Description du projet
Le facteur santé mentale de la connectivité en dehors des heures de travail
Les technologies de l’information et de la communication comme la 4G et l’internet des objets (IdO) jouent un rôle de plus en plus important dans notre vie quotidienne. Les mesures de distanciation sociale imposées pour faire face à la pandémie de COVID-19 ont contribué à augmenter le temps que les gens passent devant leurs écrans. Une meilleure compréhension de leurs effets sur la santé mentale est essentielle. Dans ce contexte, le projet BIMH financé par l’UE mènera une étude approfondie de la complexité des liens entre l’utilisation de l’IdO au travail et les troubles de la santé mentale rencontrés chez les employés. Le projet étudiera l’impact de la diffusion de l’Internet à haut débit sur les demandes d’indemnisations pour invalidité relative à la santé mentale en Belgique entre 1995 et 2012. Les résultats devraient fournir un point de vue unique sur la condition des travailleurs et sur leur santé mentale.
Objectif
What is the effect of work-related ICT use outside work hours on mental health? The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing challenges posed by the ever-increasing interactions between constant internet connectivity, work-life balance more generally and mental health specifically. While the situation over the last few months stems from a unique crisis, it can be contextualized within recent and broader trends that evidence an increase in diagnosed and reported mental health conditions amongst recipients of disability insurance in many OECD countries.
Bearing this exceptional reality in mind alongside broader trends that encourage more work outside the conventional office, this project aims to study the complex links between connectivity to work during non-work time and employee mental health disorders.
I study the impact of diffusion of high-speed Internet on mental health-related disability insurance claims in Belgium from 1995 to 2012. My empirical strategy exploits Belgian cross-municipality variation in supply-side constraints to high-speed Internet access based on the pre-existing telephone infrastructure in Belgium. I combine administrative data from the Belgian Crossroads Bank for Social Security (CBSS), a rich set of individual-level microdata, with unique telecommunication data from the Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications (BIPT) that document roll-out of ADSL technology across roughly 580 Belgian municipalities.
By focusing on the usage of work-related ICT use after traditional work hours and linking that usage to mental well-being, this project offers innovative explanations to the existing economic, management and public policy-oriented literature on disability. More specifically, this project contributes to the understanding of recent trends that fundamentally impact the expansion and costs of both regional and national disability insurance programs.
Champ scientifique
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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinateur
1050 Bruxelles / Brussel
Belgique