regate unemployment statistics was persistently and programmatically upward. The fact and breadth of involuntary unemployment well confirmed, sociological and psychological researchers in this period looked for patterns of experience and behavior among the unemployed. They have not been consistent across study designs or populations, although certain coincidences have been noticed.
The connection between employment status and a general sense of well-being, life satisfaction, self-esteem, and positive integration into society as a whole has been confirmed across a variety of subject populations (Winefield, Tiggemann & Winefield, 1991; Peregoy & Schleibner, 1990). Self-esteem and mental health more generally have been included within the meaning of well-being, and the phenomenon of psychosomatic illness figures in complex ways into the well-being equation. One of the most significant findings regarding the relationship between employment status and well-being is that there are observable differences of degree and kind between the sense of well-being experienced by younger and middle-aged men. In this regard, Broomhall and Winefield (1990, p. 43) cite a "'vitamin model' of mental health: availability, physical security, opportunity for interpersonal contact, and valued social position." The employed status confers or implies the presence each of these attributes on individuals, and when that status changes for an individual, so does the level of life satisfaction. In a questionnaire analysis of younger and middle-aged men whose length of unemployment was roughly equal, Broomhall and Winefield explain that "for the middle-aged, unemployment is more traumatic than it is for young people" (Broomhall & Winefield, 1990, p. 49). This finding is accepted and confirmed by Winefield, Winefield, Tiggemann and Goldney (1991). What the research in this area indicates in general is that middle-aged workers have more job involvement than their young...