title: Effect of underemployment on school-leavers' self-esteem.
abstract: This study explores whether self-esteem is adversely affected by economic underemployment as defined by unemployment, involuntary part-time employment, intermittent unemployment, and poverty income in a group of recent school-leavers. Results indicate that self-esteem was significantly lower in each of the economically underemployed groups relative to the adequately employed after controlling for early self-esteem, socio-economic status, gender, ethnicity, aptitude, age, and education. There were no differences in self-esteem among the economically underemployed groups after adjusting for the control variables. Economic underemployment proved to be a distinct concept relative to self-reported job satisfaction. Underemployment was negatively related to self-esteem after controlling for perceived job satisfaction and the other control variables. Our findings suggest a need for societal attention to the levels of underemployment on par with the attention given to monitoring traditional unemployment levels.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine, USA.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Prause
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dooley
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011203:Poverty / Q000523:psychology; D012649:Self Concept; D013332:Student Dropouts / Q000523:psychology*; D014478:Unemployment / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States