Depressive symptoms and the salience of job satisfaction over the life course of professionals $ Gabriele Plickert a,b, *, Fiona Kay c , John Hagan d,e a Psychology and Sociology Department, California State Polytechnic University, 3801 West Temple Avenue, Pomona, CA 91768, USA b Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA c Department of Sociology, D 431 Mackintosh – Corry, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada d Northwestern University, Department of Sociology, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA e American Bar Foundation, 1812 Chicago Ave, Room 203, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 7 May 2015 Received in revised form 1 November 2016 Accepted 2 November 2016 Available online 11 November 2016 Keywords: Life course Job satisfaction Depressive symptoms Professionals Hierarchical growth curve model Work-family interface A B S T R A C T Despite growing interest in the relationship between job satisfaction and well-being, little is known about how job satisfaction and mental health may vary with age or stage of career. The professions, in particular, represent somewhat of a black box. Rewards associated with being a professional include prestige, autonomy, high income, heavy responsibilities, long working hours, and tight deadlines. Are professional jobs healthy jobs? The purpose of this paper is to investigate how mental health trajectories of legal professionals are a function of job satisfaction and how this relationship varies over stages of the life course. We apply a life course perspective and incorporate theories of work-family interface, role identity, and job-demands control. Using growth curve models with longitudinal panel data tracking the careers and lives of lawyers, we find declines in the trajectories of depressive symptoms over the life course. Job satisfaction is salient to trajectories of depressive symptoms, with pronounced effects during the early career years. We also find that mental health is improved by authority and control in the workplace as well as by marriage/cohabitation. These processes are observed to differ for men and women during the early career to periods of midlife. ã 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Professionals are largely seen as a distinguished class of workers who serve public needs and enjoy considerable prestige and job autonomy. Unlike non-professional workers, professionals are largely shielded from the physical, monotonous or unpleasant work conditions (Chan, Anstey, Windsor, & Luszcz, 2011; Gorman 2015). Yet, does the work of professionals necessarily result in better mental health? Research in the sociology of work exploring health outcomes emphasizes that jobs with high demands and low control are linked to stress and other health problems, while jobs with low demands and high control or high demands and high control (i.e., active involvement) are “healthier jobs” (Karasek & Theorell, 1990; Siegrist et al., 2004). High status professions are characterized by active work involvement and yet high levels of work involvement are also found to negatively affect job satisfaction and mental health and to interfere with personal lives (Fischer & Sousa-Pouza, 2009). We examine how mental health trajectories for a sample of legal professionals are a function of job satisfaction and how this relationship varies over the life course. Similar to physicians and engineers, lawyers are members of a high status profession with advanced educational and professional certification requirements. Lawyers enjoy considerable prestige and their work is character- ized by expert knowledge, autonomy, a normative orientation toward serving others, and high financial rewards (Gorman & Sandefur, 2011). At the same time, law is a demanding career, involving long hours, frequent tight deadlines, and pressure to recruit new clients. In recent years, the legal profession has also $ This research was supported by research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Law School Admission Council (LSAC). The opinions contained in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the LSAC or SSHRC granting agencies. We are grateful for the helpful advice and comments of Jane Sell, Francesco Billari, Sara Jaffee, and the reviewers. * Corresponding author at: Psychology and Sociology Department, California State Polytechnic University, 3801 West Temple Avenue, Pomona, CA 91768, USA. E-mail addresses: gplickert@cpp.edu (G. Plickert), kayf@queensu.ca (F. Kay), j-hagan@northwestern.edu (J. Hagan). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.alcr.2016.11.001 1040-2608/ã 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Advances in Life Course Research 31 (2017) 22–33 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Advances in Life Course Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/alcr