er counterparts, hence a greater stake in employment outcomes and of course more to lose in the event of unemployment. Thus middle-aged workers suffer comparatively more intense sense of dissatisfaction with their lives than younger workers who become unemployed, a state that increases the longer unemployment persists (Dew, Penkower & Bromet, 1991). In this connection, a study of unemployed wood-factory workers by Viinamaki, Koskela, Niskanen, Arnkill, and Tikkanen (1993) found that mature married men--i.e., a group likely to be burdened with financial responsibilities and subject to feelings of "inferiority and worthlessness" in their personal relationships--experienced lower mental well-being than younger, single unemployed men or women.
All of this is aggravated by the fact that, in general, middle-aged workers who become unemployed remain jobless for a longer period than their younger counterparts (Broomhall & Winefield, 1990; Viinamaki, Koskela, Niskanen, Arnkill & Tikkanen, 1993). Further, the longer one remains unemployed, the more likely ps
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