The effect of unemployment on mental health

Sixteen recent longitudinal studies are examined for evidence relevant to the claim that a change to one’s employment status aVects one’s mental health. Although there were limitations to the set of studies examined, most of the studies supported this claimed relationship. Examination was then made of the size of this eVect. In carrying out this examination, the set of study results were divided into two categories: (a) those addressing the question of the extent to which gaining employment impacts on mental well-being; (b) those addressing the question of the extent to which employment loss impacts on mental health. The meta-analyses indicated that there was a weighted eVect size of .54 for the erst question, and a smaller weighted eVect size (.36) for the latter question. Depressive aVect is probably the most frequently studied psychological variable among unemployed people. In the 10 years since O’Brien (1986) reviewed the literature on the psychological eVects of unemployment, 16 longitudinal studies have appeared in MEDLINE or PSYCLIT to complement the large number of cross-sectional studies which have compared employed and unemployed persons on various measures of personality, mood and psychiatric vulnerability. With the addition of these recent longitudinal studies it is possible to attempt to summarize what is known about the mental health consequences of unemployment, even while acknowledging certain methodological issues that continue to constrain the study of this aspect of the psychology of unemployment. In this article we review what is known about the mental health eVects of unemployment. We do not pay detailed attention to personal and contextual factors which might limit the validity of any generalizations about the nature and extent of the relationship between unemployment and negative aVect, as our main aim is to consider the scientiec evidence for the claim that job loss generally aVects the mental health of the unemployed. A second aim of the paper is to describe the size of any demonstrated eVect.

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