Job seeking, reemployment, and mental health: A randomized field experiment in coping with job loss.

Abstract

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.

Cites (48)

1. Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change
   Bandura, Albert · 1977 · Psychological Review
2. Untitled work
   1975 · PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
3. Society and the Adolescent Self-Image
   Rosenberg, Morris · 1965
4. Sample Selection Bias as a Specification Error
   Heckman, James J. · 1979 · Econometrica
5. “Stress: appraisal and coping,”
   Folkman, Susan · 2013 · Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine
6. Untitled work
   1980 · Medical Entomology and Zoology
7. Untitled work
   1979 · Medical Entomology and Zoology
8. Psychological stress and the coping process
   Richard S. Lazarus · 1966 · Medical Entomology and Zoology
9. How We Think
   JOHN M. DEWEY · 1910
10. A Theory of Psychological Reactance
    Torrance, E. Paul, Brehm, Jack W. · 1968 · The American Journal of Psychology

Show all 48 references

Cited by (26)

1. Does changing behavioral intentions engender behavior change? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence
   Webb, Thomas L., Sheeran, Paschal · 2006 · Psychological Bulletin
2. Psychological and physical well-being during unemployment: a meta-analytic study
   McKee-Ryan, Frances, Song, Zhaoli, Wanberg, Connie R., Kinicki, Angelo J. · 2005 · Journal of Applied Psychology
3. The science of prevention. A conceptual framework and some directions for a national research program
   Coie, John D., Watt, Norman F., West, Stephen G., Hawkins, J. David, Asarnow, Joan R., Markman, Howard J., Ramey, Sharon L., Shure, Myrna B., Long, Beverly · 1993 · American Psychologist
4. Job search and employment: A personality-motivational analysis and meta-analytic review.
   Ruth Kanfer, Connie R. Wanberg, Tracy M. Kantrowitz · 2001 · Journal of Applied Psychology
5. Toward a Unifying Theoretical and Practical Perspective on Well-Being and Psychosocial Adjustment.
   Lent, Robert W. · 2004 · Journal of Counseling Psychology

See all 425