Job seeking, reemployment, and mental health: a randomized field experiment in coping with job loss.
Cognitive theories of adherence to difficult courses of action and findings from previous survey research on coping with a major life event--job loss--were used to generate a preventive intervention, tested by a randomized field experiment. The aim was to prevent poor mental health and loss of motivation to seek reemployment among those who continued to be unemployed and to promote high-quality reemployment. Ss were 928 recently unemployed adults from southeastern Michigan, representing a broad range of demographic characteristics; they were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control condition. The experimental intervention included training in job seeking with a problem-solving process emphasizing inoculation against setbacks and positive social reinforcement. A pretest was administered, followed by posttests 1 and 4 months after the experiment. The experimental condition yielded higher quality reemployment in terms of earnings and job satisfaction, and higher motivation among those who continued to be unemployed.
Caplan
R D
RD
Vinokur
A D
AD
Price
R H
RH
van Ryn
M
M
D000328:Adult; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008824:Michigan; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D011314:Preventive Health Services; D011897:Random Allocation; D014478:Unemployment / Q000523:psychology*