Hippocampal tissue mechanics are sensitive to fluctuations in oestrogen across the rat oestrous cycle.

The unequal distribution of money, power, and resources shapes the conditions in which people live and work and is a fundamental determinant of health (). Attention has increasingly focused on employment quality as a central pathway through which these broader structural inequalities become embodied. Employment quality is defined as a multidimensional construct encompassing the full continuum of employment conditions that result from power relations between workers and employers. A growing body of evidence links low employment quality, known as precarious employment, to adverse outcomes including psychological distress, injury, and chronic illness (; ). Precarious employment is often characterized by temporary contracts, unstable work time arrangements, insufficient wages, limited autonomy, and a lack of social protections (; ; ). In the United States, the prevalence of precarious employment has increased substantially in recent decades, with the burden falling disproportionately on women, racially minoritized groups, and individuals with lower levels of formal education (). As such, employment quality has emerged as a key social determinant of health and an important mechanism through which structural inequality is reproduced. Emerging adulthood, the critical life stage from age 18 to 29, is when many individuals enter the workforce and establish their early employment experiences. These early labor market experiences are particularly consequential because they occur at a time when educational trajectories, caregiving responsibilities, and economic independence are still in flux. This period serves as a key phase for the reproduction or disruption of health and socioeconomic inequities over the life course (; ). The quality of early employment experiences can have lasting effects on health, earnings, and educational attainment. As a structural driver of socioeconomic status, employment quality can serve as a turning point through which early exposure to low-quality employment conditions can constrain future life planning, increase stress, and reinforce existing inequities. Conversely, access to high-quality employment with adequate wages, flexibility for continued education, and social protections can promote stability and resilience, providing a pathway to upward economic mobility (; ; ). Despite the importance of early employment experiences for life-course trajectories, the experiences of emerging adults in the U.S. remain critically underexamined. Much of the existing literature on precarious employment has focused on mid-career adults (; ; ), often in European settings with stronger labor protections and social safety nets (; ). U.S.-based qualitative research has documented how low-wage and precarious work is experienced as chronic insecurity, time scarcity, and constrained choice, with workers frequently normalizing poor conditions while relying on individual strategies to manage economic stress (; ; ). However, this body of work has largely focused on occupational sectors such as gig work, caregiving, retail, or food service (; ), offering limited insight into how precarious employment shapes early labor market participation and health during emerging adulthood.