Why do individuals suffer during unemployment? Analyzing the role of deprived psychological needs in a six-wave longitudinal study.

Abstract

This 6-wave study addresses the psychological meaning of employment by examining the psychological need mechanisms predicting psychological distress during unemployment and reemployment. According to the deprivation model, unemployed people suffer, as unemployment deprives them of the latent functions of employment (i.e., time structure, social contact, status, activity, and collective purpose), which reflect psychological needs that are important for mental health. We tested whether the latent functions of employment, the manifest function of employment (i.e., one's financial situation), and the additional psychological need functions of competence and autonomy mediate the associations between unemployment and distress. At Time 1, N ϭ 1,061 participants, who were either unemployed or lost their jobs during the course of the study, took part. At Time 6, after two and a half years, 45.4% of the respondents were employed. Multilevel mediation analyses showed that reemployment predicted gains in each of the original latent and manifest functions, which, in turn, predicted reductions of distress. Collective purpose was found to be the most important latent function. The findings endorse the validity and robustness of the deprivation model. Additionally, they demonstrate that the neglected psychological need function of competence (but not autonomy) also is a latent function of employment that should be incorporated into the deprivation model. Contrary to the predictions of the deprivation model, we found that poverty also plays an important role for the distress associated with unemployment.

Influence of Subjective/Objective Status and Possible Pathways of Young Migrants’ Life Satisfaction and Psychological Distress in China

“…Lower socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with high psychological distress, and lower subjective social status is related to poor mental health. Poverty and unemployment play an important role in distress ( Zechmann and Paul, 2019 ). Some studies have indicated that traditional SES variables, such as household income, can directly affect psychological distress.…”

The Impact of Work Engagement on Future Occupational Rankings, Wages, Unemployment, and Disability Pensions—A Register-Based Study of a Representative Sample of Finnish Employees

“…Although unemployment is not synonymous with job loss, an obvious career shock, the latter typically leads to the former, as for instance only 1% of the unemployed in Finland are estimated to be voluntarily unemployed [44]. In addition to its manifest functions (financial situation), employment has several latent functions; for example, social contacts, time structure, status, activity, collective purpose, and the psychological need of competence [45]. A lack of these functions has been found to mediate the relationship between unemployment and distress, and re-employment in turn has predicted gains in these functions, which in turn have led to reduction in distress [45].…”

“…In addition to its manifest functions (financial situation), employment has several latent functions; for example, social contacts, time structure, status, activity, collective purpose, and the psychological need of competence [45]. A lack of these functions has been found to mediate the relationship between unemployment and distress, and re-employment in turn has predicted gains in these functions, which in turn have led to reduction in distress [45]. Therefore, unemployment can be considered a specific kind of career shock.…”

Happiness, Work, and Identity

“…As mentioned in Section 2, Jahoda (1981) argues that employment is psychologically beneficial because it gives a time structure to the day, allows people to get in contact with others outside the family, forces people to be active, links people with broader goals, and defines personal status and identity. To understand the relative importance of each of these channels, one would have to empirically separate and quantify each of these five latent benefits of work, or at least subgroups of them (for an example, see Zechmann and Paul 2019). To that end, it is useful to differentiate between the first three latent benefits and the latter two.…”