Coping with unemployment: a literature review and presentation of a new model

Abstract

This paper reviews the unemployment literature with a view to identifying a new way of modelling the process of coping with unemployment. The review shows that early models of coping adopted a trait-based approach, which viewed coping as a stable, transcending disposition of the person and, therefore, failed to consider the range of coping responses that people use during unemployment. The use of state-based approaches to coping, in more recent research, has overcome this problem. However, the newer models still assess coping via discrete, linear relationships and have focused primarily on the obtainment of re-employment rather than promotion of psychological health during unemployment. In an attempt to overcome these problems, the`Coping, Psychological and Employment Status' (CoPES) model is presented in the current paper. This new and comprehensive model illustrates the non-recursive relationships between stressors, cognitive appraisals, coping efforts and psychological health during unemployment. The CoPES model also depicts the relationship between coping, psychological health and re-employment. This model provides a more integrated approach to coping with unemployment and allows for the examination of new relationships. The CoPES model, applied within Ipsative±Normative designs and assessed using quantitative and qualitative techniques, will make a significant contribution to research conducted into unemployment.Unemployment is defined as the situation of being without, but actively seeking, employment and is a serious and persistent social problem in many

Individual differences in age and self-efficacy in the unemployed

“…In a review of the "coping with unemployment" literature, Waters (2000) commented on the failure of early trait-based models of coping to take into account the variety of coping responses an individual may use Age and Self-Efficacy 6 during unemployment. These static conceptualisations of coping contrasted with the dynamic definition provided by Folkman et al (1986) and did not allow for the changing nature of coping responses over time and various situations.…”

“…, unemployment and self efficacy (Nesdale & Pinter, 2000), and personality and coping (Park, 1998;Waters, 2000), this paper will focus on individual differences and self-efficacy within the unemployed population.…”

Reducing latent deprivation during unemployment: The role of meaningful leisure activity

“…Given the negative relationship between the deprivation of these latent functions (latent deprivation) and psychological distress it is important to ascertain ways in which such deprivation can be reduced (Waters, 2000). The current study aims to investigate the role of meaningful leisure activity in reducing latent deprivation and psychological distress during unemployment.…”

The Unemployed Workers’ Perceptions of Stress and Employment Prospects in Macedonia: The Role of Alternative Adjustment Mechanisms

“…The employment status is widely acknowledged to have a large influence on individual perceptions, with unemployment in particular associated with a strong negative impact on measures of life satisfaction (Winkelmann and Winkelmann 1998;Waters 2000). For instance, the empirical findings show that unemployed have higher levels of perceived stress compared to employed and among the lowest level of psychological wellbeing of all people (Meer 2014).…”