Being a financially vulnerable solopreneur: The health toll

Rooted in modified employment strain theory (EST), this article explores health outcomes among financially vulnerable solopreneurs in Europe—a financially at-risk subgroup of solo entrepreneurs or self-employed workers who do not hire employees. According to EST, workers’ health outcomes are explained by various working conditions and sources of social support. Our convenience sample was gathered through an online questionnaire ( N = 235), and the structural relationships were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The main findings indicate that solopreneurs’ perceived general (mental and physical) health was positively associated with expected (instrumental) social support from family and friends, while specific adverse health outcomes of work stress (e.g. exhaustion, headaches) were positively associated with their working conditions—namely, financial and scheduling uncertainty, as well as exposure to unfair treatment at work. This study offers pioneering empirical insights into the determinants of health outcomes among (the most) precarious solopreneurs in Europe.