When does unemployment imply impaired psychological health? The mediating role of psychological deprivation and social support

The purpose was to find out living circumstances and individual characteristics which determine mental health status of unemployed individuals under aggravating societal conditions brought on a high unemployment rate and economic crisis. The questionnaire comprising measures of demographic variables, length of unemployment, work-related attitudes, job search behavior, psychological deprivation, social support and subjective mental health was applied on the representative national sample of registered unemployed persons (N=1, 138). Psychological deprivation was defined through the two general aspects of latent work deprivation, based on Jahoda’ s deprivation theory: activity and time structure deprivation, social and status deprivation. Perceived social support was defined by a composite measure. Subjective health was examined by the Croatian version of the SF-36 Health Survey. Based on the national norms, three distinct levels of health status were defined: (1) a poor, significantly impaired psychological health ; (2) expected level of psychological health for the age and gender ; (3) very good, not impaired psychological health. The hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed age, education, latent work deprivation and social support as significant independent predictors of the individual differences in health status. Social and status deprivation and social support were identified as mediating the relation between individual’ s age and his or her psychological health during unemployment. Older and less educated persons experience more negative consequences of unemployment, as well as those who experienced more latent work deprivation and less social support. The results are discussed in context of theoretical explanations for why unemployment may negatively influence individuals’ well-being provided by Jahoda (1982) and Warr (1987), and a general finding on social support as a protective factor in stressful events.