Explaining the Psychological Effects of Unemployment for Young People: The Importance of Specific Situational Factors

Evidence of the effects of duration of unemployment and gender upon the psychological response to unemployment is reviewed. It is suggested that many of the apparent contradictions in this evidence can be resolved by reference to situational factors which shape how stressful unemployment is for a particular individual. The study reported tested the effects of a stressful period of unemployment on the psychological well-being, self-esteem and life-satisfaction of young people. No sex differences in response to unemployment were found, and this is explained in terms of the similarity of their experiences. The relevance of these findings for counselling the unemployed is discussed.     

EAS temperaments as predictors of unemployment in young adults: A 9-year follow-up of the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study

EAS temperament traits (negative emotionality, activity, sociability) are known to be associated with psychosocial adjustment. We examined whether these traits also predict unemployment in young adults. The participants (n = 1493–1893) were from the population based Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study. EAS temperaments were assessed three times during a 9-year period from 1992 to 2001. Unemployment status and duration of unemployment were assessed in 2001 when the participants were from 24- to 39 -year olds. Especially higher negative emotionality and lower activity were associated with greater likelihood of reporting unemployment at the end of the follow-up. Higher negative emotionality and lower sociability and lower activity predicted unemployment duration. These results suggest that temperament traits are associated with risk of unemployment.     

Childhood and adolescent predictors of early adult career pathways

Individual and contextual factors in childhood and adolescence that were hypothesized to contribute to career pathways were examined in a prospective study. Four career pathway groups were distinguished in a sample of 202 at-risk men (23-24 years of age); namely, young men with long-term unemployment, short-term unemployment, full employment, or a college education. Measures of educational attainment, family and peer characteristics, and personal adjustment during childhood and adolescence were used to determine if they would predict early adult career pathways. Findings indicated that the long-term unemployed young men, overall, showed the poorest levels of educational attainment, family and peer characteristics, and personal adjustment during childhood and adolescence.The most important predictors of differing career pathways were educational attainment, arrests, and mental health problems. Implications of the findings for conceptualizing the school-to-work transition within an integrative framework are discussed.     

Stress and Gender in Unemployed Female and Male Managers

The purpose of this pioneering study was to investigate the overall impact of unemployment on female managers compared to their male counterparts, an area which to date has received no specific attention. A questionnaire was designed based on a review of the relevant literature and content analysis of in‐depth interviews with 40 unemployed managers. This was distributed to the 80 government run Executive Job Clubs located throughout England, and was used to gain quantitative data exploring respondents' experiences of unemployment in terms of sources of stress, stress moderators, and stress outcomes. Completed questionnaires were received from 115 female and 169 male unemployed managers registered at 46 Executive Job Clubs (return rate 47%). Multiple regression techniques were used to develop individual and comparative models of unemployment for unemployed female and male managers. The findings indicated that unemployed female managers encountered substantially greater sources of stress than their male counterparts in all aspects of unemployment. Increased stressors and less effective stress moderators resulted in female managers experiencing significantly poorer mental well‐being and greater negative physical effects during unemployment than their male counterparts. Recommendations are made to key organisations.     

Maintaining perceived control with unemployment facilitates future adjustment

Unemployment is a major challenge to individuals' development. An important personal resource to ameliorate the negative impact of unemployment may be perceived control, a general-purpose belief system. Little is known, however, about how perceived control itself changes with the experience of unemployment and what the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of such change in perceived control are in different ages. We use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (N = 413 who experienced unemployment and N = 413 case-matched controls; time period of data collection: 1994–1996) to examine whether perceived control changes with unemployment, explore the role of socio-demographic, psychosocial and health factors in moderating such change, and investigate whether levels of perceived control prior to unemployment and unemployment-related change in perceived control predict unemployment-related outcomes up to five years following. Results indicated that, on average, perceived control remained relatively stable with unemployment, and that younger and older workers did not differ in this regard. However, there were sizeable individual differences in change in perceived control, with women and those with fewer years of education experiencing greater unemployment-related declines in perceived control. Lower levels of perceived control prior to unemployment and steeper unemployment-related decrements in perceived control were each associated with a higher risk of remaining unemployed in the 12 months immediately following unemployment. Steeper unemployment-related declines in perceived control also predicted lower life satisfaction up to five years following. We discuss possible pathways by which perceived control may facilitate adjustment to unemployment, consider the role of perceived control for better understanding the dynamics of unemployment, and suggest routes for further more process-oriented inquiry.     

Understanding the Effects of Unemployment in Indian Graduates: Psychological,Financial and Social Perspectives

The present research attempts to examine the psychological impact of unemployment and understand the individual experiences of unemployed Indian graduates. It seeks to address three possible effects of unemployment, which are psychological, financial and social, along with a necessary scrutiny on how these individuals cope with their present unemployed situation. A qualitative analysis method has been employed to investigate the research objectives through employment of a semi-structured interview schedule among graduates in the age group of 21–23 years. The research findings suggest that unemployed graduates are psychologically impacted and sometimes experience feeling of worthlessness, social embarrassment and high level of stress. Some individuals also reported a lack of motivation and meaning in their life. Although, a majority of the participants agreed to have a decline in their psychological well-being, not all share the similar experiences of unhappiness and worthlessness owing to their unemployment. Therefore, this research also hopes to underline differences in the individual experiences due to unemployment.     

Friendship jealousy in young adolescents: individual differences and links to sex, self-esteem, aggression, and social adjustment

Children's vulnerability to jealousy surrounding their best friends was explored in 2 studies. Study 1 involved 94 adolescents who reported on their friendship jealousy on a newly created measure. Results indicated that the jealousy measure had sound psychometric properties and produced individual differences that were robust over time and free from socially desirable responding. As expected, girls and adolescents with low self-worth reported the greatest friendship jealousy. Study 2 involved 399 young adolescents and extended the measurement of self-report jealousy to a broader age range. In addition, Study 2 included assessments of jealousy provided by friends and other peers. Self- and peer-reported jealousy were only modestly associated and had somewhat distinct correlates. Structural modeling revealed that young adolescents' reputation for friendship jealousy was linked to behaving aggressively and to broader peer adjustment difficulties. Both self- and peer-reported jealousy contributed to loneliness.     

Economic stress and marital adjustment among couples: analyses at the dyadic level

This survey study of 608 Finnish couples investigated the question of how economic stress is reflected in marital adjustment on the basis of the model presented by Conger and colleagues. We used the couple as a unit of analysis, performing a dyadic‐level analysis within the framework of LISREL models. The model showed that the path by which economic circumstances were linked to marital adjustment was as follows: poor economic circumstances were linked to economic strain, which was related to increased psychological distress, and psychological distress in turn was negatively reflected in marital adjustment. However, psychological distress only partially mediated the link between economic strain and marital adjustment: economic strain was also directly linked to decreased marital adjustment. In addition, there occurred crossover between partners' experiences. First, wives' psychological distress was negatively related to husbands' reports of marital adjustment and vice versa. Second, unemployment among men was directly linked to reports of marital adjustment among women: the longer the man's total spell of unemployment, the poorer the woman's marital adjustment. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adolescents' explanations for political issues: concordance with their views of self and society.

The relationships between adolescents' explanations for unemployment, poverty, and homelessness and their beliefs about opportunity, reports of family values, and personal aspirations were tested for 434 teenagers (mean age = 16 years 4 months). Explanations were coded for references to individual causes, societal causes, or both. Higher maternal education and average household income in the adolescent's school district were positively related to the likelihood of attributing all three problems to societal causes. When explaining unemployment, older adolescents noted both causes, and boys mentioned individual factors whereas girls mentioned societal factors. After adjustment for background factors, those endorsing individual causes were more likely to believe that all Americans enjoyed equal opportunity and that government support encouraged dependency, and they were more committed to materialist goals. In contrast, youth endorsing societal or situational causes had more altruistic life goals and reported that compassion was emphasized in their families.     

Type A behavior and parenting stress in mothers with young children

Type A Behavior Pattern (TABP) is characterized by competitiveness, a sense of time-urgency, impatience, and aggression/hostility and it has been associated with coronary heart disease and occupational stress in men. Recently, research had begun to examine TABP in women. However, the majority of studies focus on women as student or employee and not in the role of mother. Thus, although women spend a significant proportion of their adult lives bearing and raising children, little is known about TABP relationships in these roles. Further, the parenting adjustment literature amply describes the stressful nature of parenting a young child but with little attention paid to the relationship between maternal individual characteristics and parenting stress. This study investigated maternal adjustment and TABP in order to provide a clearer picture of Type A women as mothers as well as to expand information on individual characteristics which contribute to or mediate a woman’s adjustment to motherhood. Because of its presumed relationship to TABP and stress, maternal employment status was a control variable. One hundred twenty-six women with children between the ages of 9–24 months completed questionnaires reporting maternal stress, maternal perceptions of her child and somatic complaints. TABP was assessed by two measures, the Framingham Type A Scale (FTAS) and a recent measure, the Adolescent/Adult Type A Behavior Scale (AATABS), which yields factor scores as well as a global TABP rating. Overall, Type A women reported higher levels of child-related stress and personal stress than Type B women. Certain factors such as Hurry, Control, and Hostility were also associated with stress indices. There was qualified support for a relationship between the TABP factor, Hurry, and self-reported somatic complaints. Directions for future research are discussed.     

Type A behavior and parenting stress in mothers with young children

Type A Behavior Pattern (TABP) is characterized by competitiveness, a sense of time-urgency, impatience, and aggression/hostility and it has been associated with coronary heart disease and occupational stress in men. Recently, research had begun to examine TABP in women. However, the majority of studies focus on women as student or employee and not in the role of mother. Thus, although women spend a significant proportion of their adult lives bearing and raising children, little is known about TABP relationships in these roles. Further, the parenting adjustment literature amply describes the stressful nature of parenting a young child but with little attention paid to the relationship between maternal individual characteristics and parenting stress. This study investigated maternal adjustment and TABP in order to provide a clearer picture of Type A women as mothers as well as to expand information on individual characteristics which contribute to or mediate a woman’s adjustment to motherhood. Because of its presumed relationship to TABP and stress, maternal employment status was a control variable. One hundred twenty-six women with children between the ages of 9–24 months completed questionnaires reporting maternal stress, maternal perceptions of her child and somatic complaints. TABP was assessed by two measures, the Framingham Type A Scale (FTAS) and a recent measure, the Adolescent/Adult Type A Behavior Scale (AATABS), which yields factor scores as well as a global TABP rating. Overall, Type A women reported higher levels of child-related stress and personal stress than Type B women. Certain factors such as Hurry, Control, and Hostility were also associated with stress indices. There was qualified support for a relationship between the TABP factor, Hurry, and self-reported somatic complaints. Directions for future research are discussed.     

Coping With Unemployment: The Impact of Unemployment Duration and Personality on Trajectories of Life Satisfaction

Unemployment is a major life event that causes an enormous drop in people's life satisfaction. However, there is substantial variability in people's ability (or inability) to cope with the experience of unemployment. In the present study, we examined the causes of individual differences in trajectories of life satisfaction when people were faced with unemployment by taking into account the persistence of unemployment, pre‐event personality and age. Analyses were based on data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel. Using latent growth curve modelling, life satisfaction was investigated from 3 years before to 3 years after a person became unemployed in a total sample of 908 individuals. As expected, unemployment caused a substantial drop in life satisfaction that persisted for at least 3 years after the event. On average, individuals did not completely return to their previous satisfaction level. This pattern existed even for participants who re‐entered the labour market. Moreover, our results showed that variability in coping with unemployment can be explained in part by personality traits. For people with short periods of unemployment, Conscientiousness reinforced the negative effect of unemployment, whereas Extraversion softened the effect. In sum, our analyses showed that (a) the negative effect of unemployment on life satisfaction differs according to the length of the unemployment period and (b) personality partially moderates responses to unemployment over time. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Hard times and European youth. The effect of economic insecurity on human values,social attitudes and well‐being

While economic downturns have adverse effects on young people's life chances, empirical studies examining whether and to what extent human values, social attitudes and well‐being indicators respond to sudden economic shocks are scarce. To assess the claim that human values are less affected by economic shocks than social attitudes and well‐being, two distinct yet related studies based on the European Social Survey (ESS) are conducted. The first employs a fixed effects pseudo‐panel analysis of the 2008–2014 ESS‐waves to detect whether changes over time in the socio‐demographic group's unemployment risk and national youth unemployment affect individual dispositions to varying degrees. The second study captures micro‐ and cross‐national effects in the 2010 ESS cross‐section. Unique for this set‐up is that we can test whether the findings hold for over‐time changes in youth unemployment within countries (pseudo‐panel), as well as for cross‐country differences in youth unemployment (multilevel). Both studies indicate that political trust, satisfaction with the economy and subjective well‐being are lowered by economic risk and hardship, while social trust and self‐rated health are less affected by changes in youth unemployment. Secondly, human values are immune to economic risk, underscoring that values transcend specific situations and are therefore resistant against sudden economic shocks.     

Adding ‘Flock’ to ‘Fight and Flight’: A Honeycomb of Resilience Where Supply of Relationships Meets Demand for Support

In this article I explain how solidarity can support positive adjustment, collective in nature, where people face chronic, cumulative stress and largely lack resources. I propose that when individuals use relationships as a way to access and mobilise resources, an enabling ecology is configured to foster positive adjustment. Applying a collectivist, transactional-ecological view of resilience I propose Relationship-Resourced Resilience (RRR) as a generative theory to explain how resilience occurs as collective, rather than individual and subjective processes. To do this, I draw on eight years of longitudinal case study data that were generated using a Participatory Reflection and Action (PRA) approach with partnership schools (N = 12, primary = 9, secondary = 3; urban = 9, rural = 3) and teachers (N = 74, female = 63, male = 11). The RRR model posits that, when under threat of chronic stress in a poverty setting, a collective response is to flock (rather than fight or flight). Flock entails a process of alone-standing individuals, experiencing shared and persistent burdens, connecting to access, share, mobilise and sustain use of resources for positive adaptation. RRR extends current resilience views of subjective, individual adjustment to individually reported stress in the direction of resilience as collective experiences of continual stress with subsequent collective positive adaptation.     

Psychosocial predictors of stress associated with the male midlife transition

This study was designed to examine the correlates of developmental psychological stress for 36 middle-aged professional men. Based on sex role convergence and role adjustment theories, two sets of predictor variables were hierarchically entered into a multiple regression equation with a third set of variables entered to control for individual stressors. Controlling for individual stressors, midlife stress outcome was found to be influenced only by role adjustment (R²=.3593). The sex role convergence cluster did not account for a significant increase in variance. Controlling for individual stressors, the best univariate predictors of stress outcome associated with the midlife transition were (a) the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship and (b) marital satisfaction.     

Probing the Big Five in Adolescence: Personality and Adjustment during a Developmental Transition

The present study probed the links among Big Five personality differences, self-reported personality differences, and adjustment to school among young adolescents. We used a multimethod converging analysis, with three sources of data: (a) adolescent self-report on standardized personality inventories; (b) classroom teacher trait ratings and evaluations of adjustment; and (c) school guidance counselor evaluations of adjustment. Evaluations of adolescent adjustment were systematically related to Big Five personality differences, as assessed by both classroom teachers' and school counselors' ratings. For classroom teachers, adjustment was closely related to evaluations on the Big Five dimension of Conscientiousness. Adolescent self-report on several standardized measures was not related to adult evaluation of school adjustment. We suggest that the five-factor model may be a useful tool for probing adjustment during the transition to adolescence.     

对中学生的人格建构与学校适应的相关分析

以乔治·凯利(George Kelley)的个人建构理论为基础,采用他发明的角色建构库测验,辅以学生学习适应性测验、压力应对测验并收集学生学习成绩,考察中学生人格建构复杂性与学校适应的关系,研究对象为从初一到高三的512名中学生。结果发现：(1) 中学生人格建构复杂性与学习成绩、学习适应性和压力应对存在显著相关。人格建构复杂性高的学生,学业成绩较好,适应学校生活的能力比较强;人格建构复杂性低的学生易采取“幻想”、“逃避”等消极压力应对方式。(2) 多元分析证明,在同时考虑到年级、性别、学习适应性和人格建构复杂性等因素时,人格建构复杂性对学习成绩的贡献大约为2.8%。(3) 中学生人格建构复杂性通过三种途径对学习成绩产生影响：其一,人格建构复杂性直接影响中学生的学习成绩;其二,以学习适应性为中介间接影响学习成绩;其三,以消极压力应对、学习适应性为中介变量,间接影响学习成绩     

蒙汉族大学生父母教养方式、成人依恋与心理困扰的关系研究

通过整群抽样方法抽取了576名大学生,对其施测父母养育方式量表、亲密关系体验量表和心理困扰量表,运用结构方程模型技术,分别考察了父母养育方式的蒙汉族差异以及成人依恋模式在父母养育方式和心理困扰间的中介作用。结果表明:(1) 蒙古族父母对孩子的关爱程度和给孩子的自主性要显著高于汉族;(2) 汉族的成人依恋模式在父母过度保护与抑郁-焦虑-压力之间起着部分中介作用,而蒙古族成人依恋的中介作用不明显,但母亲的冷漠拒绝和过度保护会导致个体依恋回避和依恋焦虑,父亲的冷漠拒绝和过度保护会影响个体的抑郁和焦虑,母亲的过度保护和父亲的冷漠拒绝会影响个体的压力。     

Do Community Characteristics Relate to Young Adult College Students’ Credit Card Debt? The Hypothesized Role of Collective Institutional Efficacy

This study examines the extent of emergent, outstanding credit card debt among young adult college students and investigates whether any associations existed between this credit card debt and the characteristics of the communities in which these students grew up or lived. Using data (N = 748) from a longitudinal survey and merging community characteristics measured at the zip code level, we confirmed that a community's unemployment rate, average total debt, average credit score, and number of bank branch offices were associated with a young adult college student's acquisition and accumulation of credit card debt. For example, a community's higher unemployment rate and lower number of bank branches were associated with a young adult college student's greater accumulated debt. Community characteristics had the strongest associations with credit card debt, especially after controlling for individual characteristics (i.e., a young adult college student's race and financial independence) and familial characteristics (i.e., their parents’ income and parents’ discussions of financial matters while growing up at home). The findings may help to understand the unique roles that communities play in shaping children and young adults’ financial capability, and how communities can be better capacitated to support the financial goals of their residents.     

Patterns of Cultural Adjustment Among Young Migrants to Australia

In response to appeals for empirical data on culture-specific differences and developmental pathways of acculturative stress among young migrants and refugees, the present study examines the cultural adjustment patterns of ethnically diverse migrants to Australia. Two hundred and seventy three primary and high school students (comprised of former-Yugoslavian and Chinese cultural groups) participated in this investigation. Participants completed self-report measures of acculturation, internalising symptoms, social support, self-concept/esteem, ethnic identity, and future outlook, and were compared by gender, school level, cultural group, heterorganic ethnicity, and residential duration variables. The main findings from this study indicate: (1) patterns of cultural adjustment differ for children and adolescents according to cultural background, gender, age, and length of stay in the host culture; (2) former-Yugoslavian migrants generally report greater identification and involvement with Australian cultural norms than Chinese migrant youth; and (3) the divergent variables social support and bicultural adjustment are not universally paired with acculturative stress, as previously indicated in other adult migrant and acculturation studies. Specific cross-cultural trends and differences are discussed.