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Core Self-Evaluations and Individual Strategies of Coping with Unemployment among Displaced Spanish Workers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2017

Tihana Virkes ,
Darja Maslić Seršić  and
Esther Lopez-Zafra
Tihana Virkes
Affiliation:
University of Zagreb (Croatia)
Darja Maslić Seršić
Affiliation:
University of Zagreb (Croatia)
Esther Lopez-Zafra*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Jaén (Spain)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Esther Lopez-Zafra. Professor of Social Psychology. Campus Las Lagunillas, s/n, Edif. C5, Office 121. 23071. Jaén (Spain). E-mail: elopez@ujaen.es
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Abstract

Unemployment has negative but also positive effects on mental health and general well-being depending on which coping strategies the individual use. Our aim was to determine the contribution of core self-evaluations in explaining the coping strategies of job search and job devaluation, as well as to test the potential moderation effect of job search and mediation effect of job devaluation on the relationship between self core-evaluations and both positive and negative experience of unemployment. One hundred seventy-eight individuals who lost their jobs involuntarily for a longer period than one month completed a questionnaire while attending to employment office. Results show that there is a significant relation between core-self evaluations and job devaluation (.37**). Furthermore, core-self evaluations were positively related to positive experience of unemployment (r = .31; p < .01) and negatively related to negative experience of unemployment (r = .60; p < .01). Moreover, self-core evaluations predicted both coping with unemployment strategies (job devaluation; β = .26; p < .01 and job search β = .19; p < .05). However, job search did not moderate the relationship between core self-evaluations and experience of unemployment. But, individuals with a longer duration of the current period of unemployment and higher core self-evaluations had a more positive experience of unemployment, and job devaluation partially mediated this relation (SE = .002; p = .038). These results imply that programs interventions should include the improvement of core self-evaluations and the positive experience of unemployed people.

Keywords

core self-evaluationsexperience of unemploymentjob devaluationjob searchstrategies of coping with unemployment
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 20 , 2017 , E59
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2017 

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Footnotes

This study was possible due to the official support obtained from the Regional Andalusian Employment Service. Special thanks to the Delegate Dña. Ana Cobo, D. José López Rozas and D. Alfonso Araque.

How to cite this article:

Virkes, T., Maslić Seršić, D. M., & Lopez-Zafra, E. (2017). Core self-evaluations and individual strategies of coping with unemployment among displaced spanish workers. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 20. e59. Doi:10.1017/sjp.2017.57

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