PRINCIPAL FINDINGS

Social Causation

Adverse Employment Change. This research has produced the key finding that not only job loss but also other kinds of adverse employment change can carry psychosocial and health costs. Specifically, these studies show that falling into various types of underemployment is associated with a variety of underivable outcomes. These outcomes include decreased self-esteem (Chapter 5), increased alcohol abuse (Chapter 6), elevated depression (Chapter 7), and lower birthweight (Chapter 9). Both unemployment and such economically inadequate forms of employment as low-wage and involuntary part-time work appear to be linked to each of these outcomes, and these links often have similar magnitudes.

Intermittent Unemployment. Interestingly, intermittent unemployment had opposite associations depending on the outcome. For school-leavers, intermittent unemployment had a negative relationship to self-esteem similar to that of other forms of underemployment. But for alcohol abuse and depression, the intermittently unemployed seemed much more similar to the continuing adequately employed than to any of the other underemployed groups. We can understand this uneven pattern of results by reference to differences in both the outcomes and the employment statuses.

Self-esteem reflects an enduring appraisal based on one's overall record of successes and failures. The school-leaver who falls in the category of intermittent unemployment has a job with adequate wages and hours but, in appraising his or her self-worth, seems to dwell on the recent history of unemployment.