Broomhall, H.S., & Winefield, A.H. (1990). A comparison of the affective well-being of young and middle-aged employed men matched for length of unemployment. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 63, 43-52.
The article reports a study that seeks to account for whatever well-being may be experienced by younger and older unemployed men, regardless of their shared condition of unemployment. The study is relevant to the subject of research because a general sense of well-being is a significant aspect of psychological experience. One major finding was that older men experience greater trauma upon unemployment than younger men, reflecting the commonsense inference that older men inevitably have a greater stake in their professional lives and a greater sense of the security they have lost. More intriguing is the finding that the experience of social support (family support for younger men, leisure activities with peers for older men) is more important to the well-being of the unemployed than their financial status. In other words, some experience of fellow feeling outweighs financial insecurity brought on by unemployment. What is implied, but expressed only minimally, is that the psychological community, and by extension such official agencies or service organizations that employ psychological professionals, may have a stake in manipulating environmental factors that facilitate the kind of support unemployed men may need. Broomhall and Winefield are much more direct in calling for "additional study," noting that their results are tentative only.
Claussen, B., Bjorndal, A., & Hjort, P.F. (1993). Health and re-employment in a two year follow up of long term unemployed. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 47, 14-18.
The purpose of this article is to provide empirical evidence for the connection between physical and mental illness and long-term unemployment. No less important: that long-term unemployment puts an individual at ...