Trans singer Sasha Allen releases single about forgiveness, Catholic acceptance

(RNS) — Imagining people with transphobic beliefs taking them back 'at the pearly gates,' Allen wrote, 'I find it strange to hold such hatred for a stranger. You’ll find it strange when I hold kindness to your anger. I find it strange, this shape you mold me into. You’ll find it strange when I forgive you.'

Musician Sasha Allen performs some of "When I Forgive You" on TikTok, left, and the song's accompanying artwork by Sasha Allen. (Screen grabs)

Aleja Hertzler-McCain
April 4, 2025



(RNS) — When Sasha Allen, a trans singer, sat down to write his first release after going independent, he thought he was going to write an “eff-off” song. But the song he ended up writing, with its reflections on religious transphobia, had a different sentiment.

In “When I Forgive You,” which released Saturday (March 29), Allen imagines religious people walking back their beliefs on transgender people “at the pearly gates” and questions the level of vitriol such beliefs have provoked.

“I find it strange to hold such hatred for a stranger,” Allen, 23, sings in a rollicking song with acoustic guitar and harmonica. But then his lyrics take a turn.

“You’ll find it strange when I hold kindness to your anger. I find it strange, this shape you mold me into. You’ll find it strange when I forgive you.”

Allen’s 1.5 million TikTok followers heard the first clip of the song in the week after President Donald Trump’s inauguration and his executive order defining sex as binary and immutable. The song seeks to remind the listener of the everyday humanity of trans people.

“I’m not an act of revolution that you’re watching on the news. I bet you’d like me if we talked. I bet you wouldn’t have a clue,” he sings in the new single.

Allen opened the song with a description of his devout Catholic grandmother, explaining he would have understood “if she had been abrasive and confused,” when he came out as a teenager, but instead “she’s bragging to her friends how great her grandson is.”

Because of his experience with his grandmother’s love — and the way U.S. audiences embraced him and his father on the reality singing competition show “The Voice” in 2021, where they made it to the semi-finals — Allen believes that building relationships can transform transphobia.

“It’s a show that’s really heavily viewed in middle America and places where people don’t love trans people or people voted for Trump,” Allen, who was formerly under contract with Republic Records, told RNS. “I had kids reach out to me that were like, ‘seeing your story gave my parents a perspective of a trans person that they had never seen, and they’re accepting me for the first time.’”

RELATED: Katie Pruitt continues to probe life as a ‘recovering Catholic’ on new album

Allen spoke with RNS two days before his single’s release on his religious evolution, people’s capacity for changing their minds, and where he’s finding joy.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What was your relationship with religion growing up?

I didn’t grow up in a super religious household. My parents grew up in religious households, but it kind of faded off when they had kids. They’re both spiritual, but a little all over the place.  My dad’s a little Buddhist, a little Christian, and my mom’s agnostic. I ended up finding my own relationship with God and spirituality later on as an adult in my 20s.

What was it like for you to find your own relationship with religion?

It was really beautiful actually. I think I had the space to do that because I didn’t grow up religiously. I was kind of simultaneously having all of these beautiful blessings in my life and also going through a lot of stress and coming into myself as a person, and I just kind of stumbled upon it and stumbled upon God and prayer and spirituality in general. I found that it really added to my life, and I found a lot of peace and a lot of joy in it. And I think growing up and realizing I can have my own relationship with God that’s not necessarily religious or linked to a church, you know?

Your single includes a voicemail recording of your grandmother telling you she loves you. What has your Catholic grandmother’s acceptance and support meant to you?

She has a beautiful faith and belief in God and has wholeheartedly and always accepted me and others and did not even have to consider it for a moment. She always just accepted me exactly for who I am.

It’s really powerful seeing acceptance and love come from such devout religious people where you wouldn’t expect it. I remember when I was first on “The Voice,” and I was going to be publicly trans, and my grandma expressed to me, “I wonder how people will react to that.” And it was all only positive (among her friends). I was even a guest at her book club, and they read a book about a trans person. And they’re all elderly Catholic people who don’t know anything about trans people, so I’ve had those experiences with religious people and specifically elderly religious people, which I think is even more special just because of how new all of these things must be to them.

You seem pretty optimistic in “When I Forgive You,” that just getting to know trans people will help with transphobia, but you also released a clip of another song that frames transphobia as part of a general lack of care. How do you analyze what’s going on more broadly in the world right now and what do you think needs to happen?

I’ve seen firsthand that people’s minds can be changed, but it’s impossible if you don’t open up and talk to a trans person and listen to a trans person and realize that, like, trans people are all over the place with different views and personalities and opinions, and we don’t all think the same. We’re really just trying to live a normal life and experience joy.

It is really frustrating, everything that’s going on. It literally makes me wanna bang my head against the wall because it’s so frustrating seeing such a lack of understanding from people who have not even opened themselves.

You have a model of change that requires trans people to be in conversation with people who actively don’t accept them. What does it take to be able to sit down with people who think that way?

I’m someone who would jump at the opportunity to be on Fox News or some sort of right-wing network where I could just speak and be seen as a trans person, not even in a sort of debate way.

That’s taken many years of going through it and coming into myself. I had so much anger in high school. I felt unseen. I felt like I wasn’t accepted.

Even being on social media has almost desensitized me to transphobia. It feels so insane that I’ve come to just see it as a lack of understanding and just ignorance. It’s taken a lot of time and a lot of processing what it means to be trans and move around in a world where people see you as evil. Like, people group trans people in the same group that they put pedophiles in. People really, really hate us.

It takes a lot of being fed up and a lot of frustration to be like, “Oh my God, just talk to me, just see me.”

RELATED: Catholic diocesan hermit approved by Kentucky bishop comes out as transgender

There are a lot of different meanings and approaches to forgiveness. What kind of forgiveness are you talking about in your song?

I think of forgiveness. I think of how bad things are right now and how bad things feel when you watch the news and the policies and the (Trump) administration. And there is so much beauty on the other side of that if we overcome it and so much light that we can find and joy for trans people and so much acceptance. If we do forgive, if someone is transphobic and they open themselves up and come around to it, of course I would never hold it against them.

At the end of the day, you need forgiveness to get past things 100%. Because if you’re asking people to understand and open their mind and change their views, you need to be able to forgive them and to see them like they’re seeing you.

In your own relationship with God, faith and even hope in this moment, where are you finding joy? Where are you finding comfort?

With releasing this song, I feel like I’m in a place where I’m really thankful to God for my platform and my voice and my ability to write and play music, so I can express myself — because I really, really do believe God made me trans and made me trans for a reason and made me trans so I could have a voice and reach other trans people, specifically those that are hurting or feel unaccepted. I feel a lot of joy in the fact that I’m gonna be able to reach a lot of people with it and maybe impact a few people.

 

Trees could be spying on illegal gold mining operations in the Amazon rainforest

By examining mercury concentrations in tree rings, researchers showed that trees could be witnesses to illegal gold mining activities in the Amazon, highlighting their potential as biomonitors

Frontiers

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Mining often happens in artisanal and small-scale mining operations that burn gold-mercury amalgams to extract gold particles. Credit: Simon Topp.

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Credit: Simon Topp.

For hundreds of years, the Amazon has been exploited for its gold. Today, the precious metal is just as sought after, but the remaining tiny gold particles are much harder to find. Mining often happens in artisanal and small-scale mining operations that release mercury (Hg) into the air, polluting the environment and harming human health.

An international team of researchers has now examined tree rings of species native to the Peruvian Amazon to determine if trees could be used to show approximately where and when atmospheric mercury was released.

“We show that Ficus insipda tree cores can be used as a biomonitor for characterizing the spatial and potentially the temporal footprint of mercury emissions from artisanal gold mining in the neotropics,” said Dr Jacqueline Gerson, an assistant professor in biological and environmental engineering at Cornell University and first author of the study published in Frontiers in Environmental Science. “Trees can provide a widespread and fairly cheap network of biomonitoring, by archiving a record of mercury concentration within tree bolewood.”

Mercury is in the air

For gold extraction, miners add mercury to the soil that contains tiny gold particles. Mercury binds to the gold particles which creates amalgams. Amalgams have a much lower melting point than gold so to extract it, the amalgams are burned. This process releases gaseous mercury into the atmosphere.

Three neotropical tree species with previously documented annual tree rings were examined to test their potential as biomonitors: Wild figs (Ficus insipida), a common tree in the neotropics, Brazil nuts (Bertholletia excelsa), and tornillos (Cedrelinga catenaformis). Due to the equitable year-round climate in the neotropics, not all trees form rings, and of the examined species, only F. insipida exhibited them. Tree cores samples were collected at two sites far from mining activity and three sites within five kilometers to mining towns where amalgams are frequently burned. One of the mining sites was next to protected forest.

“There are many variables that drive individual tree Hg concentrations, and it is difficult to determine the specific drivers,” Gerson explained. “The trees in the study were all the same species and from the same sites, exposed to the same atmospheric Hg concentration. That is why we sample multiple trees and then use average values.”

Mercury concentrations in bolewood were highest at the two sampling sites close to mining activity and lower at the mining-impacted site adjacent to protected forest and the sites far from mining towns. “Higher atmospheric Hg concentrations are generally associated with nearby mining locations,” Gerson explained. “In the Peruvian Amazon, where mining is the main source of Hg, the association between higher Hg concentrations and proximity to a mining site can readily be drawn.”

Especially after 2000, Hg concentrations near towns rose where mercury-gold amalgams were burned. “This is likely due to the expansion of gold mining activities around this time,” Gerson said.

A network of spies

While the study proved that trees can be used as a biomonitoring network for gaseous mercury emissions, the study has some limitations. Most notably, the exact distance to mining towns was unknown due to the illegal nature of these operations. This likely influenced the concentrations of Hg found in the trunk wood.

“Ficus insipida can be used as a cheap and powerful tool to examine large spatial trends in Hg emissions in the neotropics,” Gerson concluded. “Using bolewood could allow for regional monitoring efforts.” This is particularly important in relation to the UN Minamata Convention on Mercury, an international treaty which aims to reduce mercury and mercury compound emissions and mitigate health and environmental risks.  

Tree core sampling. Credit: Fernanda Machicao.





The lines on tree cores show the annual tree growth rings. Credit: Jacqueline Gerson.



Mining pollutes the environment and harms human health. Credit: Tatiana Manidis.





Small-scale operations set up primarily illicitly and operated in the shadows use mercury, a substance with neurotoxic properties, for gold extraction. Credit: Simon Topp.


Journal

Frontiers in Environmental Science

DOI

10.3389/fenvs.2025.1531800 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Ficus insipida tree rings as biomonitors for gaseous elemental mercury in the artisanal gold mining-impacted Peruvian Amazon

Article Publication Date

8-Apr-2025

 A WORKPLACE HEALTH ISSUE IS A UNION ISSUE

Survey: Women’s perceptions of perimenopause

Symptoms can present in the 10 years leading up to menopause

Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

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Hot flashes, mood swings, weight gain and insomnia are all signs of hormonal changes and symptoms of menopause, when a woman no longer has menstrual cycles. They can also signal perimenopause, when the body is preparing for this next season of life.

“Perimenopause is when the menstrual cycle has started to change, and it is persistent,” explained Lauren Baker, DO, an obstetrics and gynecology physician at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and certified practitioner with the Menopause Society. “The formal definition is periods fluctuate by at least seven days for at least 10 months.”

A new survey by Ohio State Wexner Medical Center of 1,068 women in the United States shows 61% believe they will hit menopause in their 40s. When, in fact, some will start to experience symptoms as early as their 30s, and most women won’t see menopause start until their early 50s.

Ohio State experts say it’s important not to ignore symptoms just because of your age. Baker said that perimenopause is not a universal experience, which is why it’s so important to bring any changes, concerns or symptoms to your doctor’s attention to find the best treatment for your body.

The Ohio State survey showed half of the women (52%) believe diet and exercise can help treat menopause symptoms, and experts agree.  

“Having a diet that's rich in calcium and vitamin D is really important for bone health,” said Baker. “Fiber and protein are also helpful from a weight management perspective. And then making sure you're getting whole foods, lots of fruits and veggies also is really important.”

The survey also revealed one in three women are concerned about the long-term health effects of menopause. Other concerns related to reproductive aging among those surveyed include physical symptoms (25%) and mental health (18%). Younger women were more likely to say mental health is their top concern related to menopause than older women (25% among 18-29-year-olds versus 10% among those ages 65+).

“Problems in the workplace, adverse effects on one's quality of life and adverse health events all have been associated with menopause, too,” said Baker. “There are effective treatments and ways to feel better to not only survive but thrive.”

Survey methodology:
This study was conducted by SSRS on its Opinion Panel Omnibus platform. The SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus is a national, twice-per-month, probability-based survey. Data collection was
conducted across two back-to-back Omni waves from February 7-10, 2025, and February 21-
24, 2025, among a combined total sample of 1,068 female respondents. The survey was
conducted via web (n=1,031) and telephone (n=37) and administered in English. The margin of
error for total female respondents is +/-3.4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The
data was weighted to represent the target population of U.S. female adults ages 18 or older.
 

 

Public housing smoking ban reduced heart attacks and strokes

Oxford University Press USA

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A new paper in Nicotine & Tobacco Research, published by Oxford University Press, finds that a 2018 U.S. ban on smoking in public housing led to a reduction in hospitalizations for cardiovascular problems.

Tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke is a leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Some 480,000 Americans die every year due to tobacco. While the prevalence of adults exposed to secondhand smoke decreased dramatically between 1988 and 2014 (from 87.5% to 25.2%), about 58 million non-smokers in the U.S. experience tobacco smoke, primarily at home. Beginning in the early 2000s, state and local governments began to prohibit smoking in public places. Studies show that smoke-free legislation for workplaces, bars/restaurants, and other spaces is associated with reductions in systolic blood pressure and hospital admissions for cardiovascular problems.

In July 2018, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a rule prohibiting smoking inside all their buildings. More than 2 million people in the United States live in public housing. With more than 400,000 residents, the New York City Housing Authority is the largest public housing organization in the country.

Researchers here examined the impact of the smoke-free policy on hospitalization outcomes for heart attacks and strokes among adults over 50 by comparing hospitalization trends among New York City public housing residents to a matched-comparison population in New York City. The study included only adults aged over 50 because heart disease risk increases substantially as adults enter their 50s.

The investigation found modest declines in heart attacks incidence rates (from 1.7% of residents to 1.1%). It also found small differential declines in strokes (from 1.9% to 1.3%). Hospitalization rates for both heart attacks and strokes in older public housing occupants trended downwards from before to 54 months after the smoking ban.

“Housing remains a focal setting for interventions aimed to reduce adverse health events that may be associated with exposure to secondhand smoke,” said the paper’s lead author, Elle Anastasiou Pesante. “These results are promising, and going forward, we are eager to understand longer term impacts of smoke free policies on cardiovascular and other chronic conditions, particularly among older adults who reside in public housing settings.”

The paper, “Evaluation of Federally Mandated Smoke-Free Housing Policy and Health Outcomes Among Adults Over the Age of 50 in Low-Income, Public Housing in New York City, 2015-2022,” is available (at midnight on April 8th) at https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntaf046.

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Journal

Nicotine & Tobacco Research

DOI

10.1093/ntr/ntaf046 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Evaluation of Federally Mandated Smoke-Free Housing Policy and Health Outcomes Among Adults Over the Age of 50 in Low-Income, Public Housing in New York City, 2015-2022

Article Publication Date

8-Apr-2025

 

Lactic acid bacteria can improve plant-based dairy alternatives

A new study maps how specific lactic acid bacteria can enhance both the flavour and nutritional quality of plant-based dairy alternatives. The findings may have wide-reaching perspectives for the further development of sustainable foods

Technical University of Denmark

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Photo: DTU.

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Credit: DTU.

A new study maps how specific lactic acid bacteria can enhance both the flavour and nutritional quality of plant-based dairy alternatives. The findings may have wide-reaching perspectives for the further development of sustainable foods.

Plant-based dairy alternatives – such as soy, oat, and almond drinks – are produced without animal ingredients for consumers seeking plant-based substitutes for milk and yoghurt. However, many of these products have the similar shortcomings: flavours that do not always appeal to consumers, and nutritional profiles that fall short of those of, e.g. cow’s milk.

A new review, led by DTU and Novonesis researchers, explores how lactic acid bacteria may help address these challenges. By analysing existing literature, the authors map how fermentation with selected bacterial strains can reduce so-called off-flavours and degrade anti-nutrients. The latter enhancing the nutrient bioavailability in plant-based dairy alternatives.

“Our review of the current research shows that fermentation with lactic acid bacteria can improve flavour perception and help make products more nutritionally complete,” says Claus Heiner Bang-Berthelsen, Senior Researcher at DTU National Food Institute.

Perspectives for more foodsa

While the study focuses specifically on plant-based dairy alternatives, the researchers believe the findings are also relevant for other food products facing similar issues. Products based on alternative protein sources such as insects, microbial proteins (e.g. mycoprotein or fermented yeast), and ingredients derived from food production side streams often face the same sensory and nutritional challenges. Fermentation with selected lactic acid bacteria may therefore prove to be a key technology in developing a wide range of sustainable foods.

“We see food fermentation as a platform technology that can support the creation of alternative foods which taste better and have higher nutritional value, allowing the use of more sustainable raw materials, says Guillermo-Eduardo Sedó Molina, PhD student at DTU National Food Institute.

For industry stakeholders, the message is clear: existing microbial solutions can improve the quality and enhance the nutritional value of plant-based products – but success depends on knowledge of bacterial strains, raw materials, and fermentation processes.

Fermentation as a key technology

Fermentation has been used for millennia to preserve and enhance foods – from sauerkraut and kefir to cheese and yoghurt. Today, it also emerges as a vital tool in developing more palatable and functional plant-based alternatives to milk.

In the new review, the researchers highlight how lactic acid bacteria – particularly those naturally adapted to plant-based raw materials – can play a pivotal role in developing plant-based fermented dairy alternatives (PBFDA).

Many plant-based ingredients naturally contain flavour compounds that consumers perceive as unpleasant – such as bitter, earthy, or green notes. These compounds – often aldehydes, ketones, and tannins – are by-products of the plant’s metabolism and can be difficult to remove without negatively affecting the rest of the product. According to the researchers, specific strains of lactic acid bacteria can convert these unwanted compounds into neutral or less perceivable flavor compounds. The result is a product that more closely resembles traditional fermented dairy products in both taste and aroma.

Key findings

• Lactic acid bacteria can reduce off-flavours in plant-based fermented products.
• They can degrade anti-nutritional compounds and enhance the absorption of minerals such as iron and zinc.
• Lactic acid bacteria found in plants are especially well-suited to ferment plant-based milks because they have been genetically adapted to grow in plant environments.
• The findings are also relevant for other alternative foods where off-flavours influence consumer acceptance, e.g. insect-based products.

Anti nutrients and mineral absorption

Another challenge with plant-based dairy alternatives is their anti-nutrient content, which negatively influences the body’s absorption of essential minerals like iron, zinc, and calcium or affects protein digestibility. Anti-nutrients bind to these minerals, making them inaccessible to the body. As a result, products may contain iron or zinc on paper but still fail to meet nutritional needs.

The researchers point out that fermentation with lactic acid bacteria can help degrade several anti-nutritional compounds. Certain bacterial strains produce enzymes that can break down these complex molecules, thereby increasing the bioavailability of nutrients in the final product.

Plant-adapted bacteria

The researchers emphasise that not all lactic acid bacteria are equally suited for this task. Bacteria originally isolated from milk are typically adapted to animal-based environments, whereas those derived from plants or plant-based foods have an evolutionary advantage in handling plant substrates. Through natural selection, these strains have developed the ability to utilise plant sugars and degrade complex plant compounds – making them ideal starter cultures for plant-based fermented products.

Therefore, the choice of bacterial strain and fermentation conditions will be crucial for developing products that are not only palatable and aromatic but also of high nutritional quality.

About the scientific review

This study is not an experimental trial with new products, but a systematic review of existing knowledge. The researchers analysed a wide range of studies and identified patterns and technological approaches that have already demonstrated promising results – and which deserve to be applied more strategically in product development.

Original title of the review:  “Metabolic insights of lactic acid bacteria in reducing off-flavours and anti-nutrients in plant-based fermented dairy alternatives”

The article is published in Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, March 2025.

The scientific review was funded by Agrifoodture under the research project REPLANTED. The authors come from the DTU National Food Institute and Novonesis. The technology developed in REPLANTED continues in the Agrifoodture project HyCheese, which aims to create hybrid cheeses made from milk and plants.

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Journal

Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety

DOI

10.1111/1541-4337.70134 

Article Title

Metabolic insights of lactic acid bacteria in reducing off-flavors and antinutrients in plant-based fermented dairy alternatives

 

Funding to support mental health at work is failing to deliver results

European Psychiatric Association

 

Tuesday 8th April 2025 – 10:30 CEST - New research presented at the 2025 European Congress of Psychiatry reveals that in the last 25 years, although there has never been this level of funding, guidelines and regulation aimed towards mental health at work, employees are now reporting greater workplace demands and increasingly less control over work deadlines. Many also report that they fear their job will make them ill. These stressors have a stronger negative impact on the mental health of millennials compared to earlier generations when they were at a similar age.

Data from over 19,000 people from the years 2000 – 2020 were used, from a population-based cohort study. Investigators looked to evaluate whether work is becoming more stressful, and whether employees are less resilient.

Key findings from the study include:

• Over 20 years, employees report an increasing trend in work being more stressful than they imagined, complex and difficult and fearing it will make them ill.
• Although employees felt they had more freedom to decide when they do their work, they report less control over how work is carried out.
• Encouragingly more people report using skills in their job and learning new skills.
• Disconcertingly millennials seem less resilient to work stresses than previous cohorts (i.e. Generation X) at any given age.
• The negative impact of higher levels of job demands on mental health has increased in younger cohorts, while at the same they receive fewer psychological benefits from autonomy and control over work, compared with older cohorts.

Nick Glozier, Professor of Psychological Medicine, University of Sydney and Lead Investigator, said: “Globally, an estimated 12 billion working days are lost every year to depression and anxiety at a cost of US $1 trillion per year in lost productivity.1 There are many risks to mental health at work including demands, which can peak in middle age due to employees reaching the pinnacle of their careers. However, our study shows that all ages questioned in the later years of our analysis report high levels of job demands and less control at work. It is very positive that there has been much more of a spotlight and funding towards mental health at work, but we have seen that the prevalence of mental ill health and subsequent disability benefits are on the rise. This has major implications for employers, insurers, regulators and benefit systems.”

Dr. Julian Beezhold, Secretary General, European Psychiatric Association, said: “Interestingly, this study reveals a paradox in that while more funding is being set aside to support workplace employees’ mental health, the prevalence of employee mental ill health rates is seemingly on the increase. This may be explained by accepting that younger employees have an increased sensitivity to work stress effects and view work as becoming more stressful. It is something that must be considered by all groups if we are to mitigate the impact of work stresses on the mental health of all ages, otherwise we risk the inevitability of the more serious consequences it may lead to.”   

The European Congress of Psychiatry takes place from 5-8 April 2025 in Madrid, Spain, and represents Europe’s largest congress dedicated to psychiatry, with over 5,200 attendees from over 120 countries: epa-congress.org. 

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Notes to editors

Abstract:

The Workplace Mental Health Paradox - Why is mental ill health at work rising yet we have never spent more to prevent it? [EPA2025-ABS-2341]

Nick Glozier* 1, Richard Morris1, Mark Deady2, Sam Harvey2

1 University of Sydney, 2 Black Dog Institute, Sydney, Australia

Introduction: There is a prevailing paradox in workplace mental health. Never has so much been spent on prevention, intervention, and regulatory programs yet the prevalence of employee mental ill-health has not only not improved, but rates are seemingly on the increase

Objectives: Two evaluate 2 explanations (a) has the reported prevalence of specific psychosocial workplace risk and protective factors changed over the last two decades (e.g., is work getting more stressful), and (b) are there trends, and generational differences, in the impact of these factors on worsening or buffering mental health (e.g., are employees becoming less resilient).

Methods: We use a 20 year population based cohort study (n=19,744) (a) We estimated the linear trend over time (2001 to 2020), to determine the population-trends of reporting higher levels  of job demands, control and complexity (b) To assess cohort differences in resilience to job stressors we estimated regression models predicting mental health (MHI-5 scores) by each psychosocial risk and birth cohort. Each model included the interaction between the self-reported psychosocial risk factor (independent variable) and birth-cohort (moderator variable) to estimate the dependency for each cohort. The marginal slope between the level of the risk factor and mental health for each cohort was estimated by the delta method (see below). Differences between the marginal slopes of adjacent cohorts were tested with adjustment for pairwise comparisons.

Results: From 2000 to 2020 employees report trends of increased perceived job demands and decreasing autonomy in deciding how work was completed, but increasing control over when work is carried out and greater skill use. High levels of demands have a stronger negative impact on the mental health of Millennials than older cohorts at a similar age, and this younger cohort benefits less from the buffering effect of autonomy at work improving mental health

About the European Psychiatric Association

With active individual members in as many as 88 countries and 44 National Psychiatric Association Members who represent more than 78,000 European psychiatrists, the European Psychiatric Association is the main association representing psychiatry in Europe. The EPA’s activities address the interests of psychiatrists in academia, research and practice throughout all stages of career development. The EPA deals with psychiatry and its related disciplines and focuses on the improvement of care for the mentally ill as well as on the development of professional excellence. More information: https://www.europsy.net/  

References

1. Mental health at work. World Health Organization. Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-at-work#:~:text=Globally%2C%20an%20estimated%2012%20billion,workers%20with%20mental%20health%20conditions. Last accessed March 2025.

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Method of Research

Observational study