Maintaining perceived control with unemployment facilitates future adjustment
Section snippets
Perceived control (change) as an outcome of unemployment
Perceived control, as a psychological construct, has a long history (for discussion, see Skinner, 1995) and refers to an individual's belief about his or her capability to exert influence over and shape his or her life circumstances (Pearlin and Schooler, 1978, Skinner, 1995). It is a widely used construct across behavioral and social science disciplines, including psychology, sociology, and economics. Higher levels of perceived control and more positive rates of change over time have been
Moderators of unemployment-related change in perceived control
Personal and social factors are resources that individuals may draw upon to protect against potential declines in perceived control as a result of unemployment (Fugate et al., 2004, McKee-Ryan et al., 2005, Paul and Moser, 2009). Older persons may experience strong unemployment-related declines in perceived control due to the prospect of facing job discrimination or possessing outdated skills for future job prospects (Hanisch, 1999). Previous research suggests that women show increases in
Perceived control as a moderator of the link between unemployment and psychological adjustment
Unemployment is known to have long-term disruptive effects on several areas of life, including difficulties to attain re-employment, reduced income, impoverished well-being, and declines in health (Bartley, 1994, Diewald, 2007, Haushofer and Fehr, 2014, Nickell, 1997, Paul and Moser, 2009). However, not all individuals show similar declines as a function of unemployment, suggesting that while most succumb to its detrimental consequences, others are resilient and able to bounce from this
The present study
Our goal is to examine unemployment as an antecedent of perceived control, moderators of changes in perceived control and the role of perceived control in moderating adjustment following unemployment. In a first step, we hypothesize that perceived control, on average, declines with unemployment, but also that considerable between-person differences in change will be found. Second, we expect that participants with more years of education and those who report better health – due to their better
Method
We examined our research questions using data from SOEP. Comprehensive information about the design, participants, variables, and assessment procedures is reported in Wagner, Frick, and Schupp (2007). A brief overview of details relevant to the present analysis is given below.
Perceived control (change) as an outcome of unemployment
Table 2 shows results from our analyses examining unemployment-related change in perceived control. In Model 1, we observed that perceived control remained stable with unemployment (β0 = − 0.02, p > .05) and that higher levels of perceived control prior to unemployment was associated with declines in perceived control with unemployment (β1 = − 0.44, p < .05). For example, individuals with perceived control that was 1 unit higher than average in perceived control prior to unemployment (3.74) would be
Discussion
This report examined unemployment as an antecedent of between-person differences in changes in perceived control and the role of perceived control as a facilitator of adjustment to unemployment. On average, perceived control was relatively stable with unemployment, but there were sizeable between-person differences in change (see Fig. 1). Women and individuals with fewer years of education experienced stronger declines. Higher pre-unemployment levels of and stability in perceived control were
Conclusion
Our findings demonstrate that there are large between-person differences in how people's perceptions of control change across adulthood as a result of unemployment, a highly challenging life event like. However, perceived control is not only an outcome but also a major resource for rebounding after a control-threatening life event such as job loss. Individuals vary in their capacity to utilize this resource and as a consequence are more or less successful in finding new employment and also
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