Mental Health and Social Exclusion among Unemployed Youth in Scandinavia. A Comparative Study

Although there has been considerable research on the relationship between mental health problems and unemployment among youth in a national context, there have been few comparative studies involving countries with different cultures and different levels of unemployment. Surveys in the five Nordic countries (Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark) of nearly 8,000 young unemployed people enable us to study young peoples' experience of unemployment in a comparative perspective. Representative samples of unemployed youth were drawn from the national unemployment registers. In Sweden the sample consisted of 3,998 young people with a response rate of 63%, in Finland 2,386 (response rate 73%), Iceland 2,280 (response rate 60%), Denmark 1,540 (response rate 76%) and Norway 2,000 (response rate 56%). The data were later coupled to data from the unemployment register in the respective countries. The populations were interviewed 6 to 12 months after they were registered as unemployed.     

Unemployment and economic security for young adults in Finland,Norway and Sweden: From unemployment protection to poverty relief

In this study, we investigated if there has been a displacement in the type and coverage of welfare services available for young unemployed adults in Finland, Norway and Sweden over the last two decades. This question is important because a number of studies have argued that the generous unemployment benefits and extensive labour market intervention found in the Nordic welfare states shield young people from the most severe consequences of economic inactivity. In this article, we instead show that during this period, less generous means‐tested unemployment and social assistance benefits have become the most important form of income protection for young people. In evidence, earnings‐related unemployment benefits now cover only 10 per cent of unemployed Swedes and Finns and 45 per cent of unemployed Norwegians aged 24 years or younger. This development marks a significant change in our understanding of unemployment protection for young people in Nordic countries.     

Social workers' attitudes towards the unemployed in the Nordic countries

Kallio J, Blomberg H, Kroll C. Social workers' attitudes towards the unemployed in the Nordic countries In recent decades, municipal social workers have become the implementers of new types of social policy measures aimed at activating the unemployed. These policies put a greater emphasis on the individual's own responsibility for being unemployed. Little is known, however, about how social workers view the unemployed – one factor that might influence how policies are in fact implemented. Therefore, our purpose was to analyse Nordic social workers' attitudes towards the unemployed and their determinants: Do social workers' attitudes correspond with a more individualistic view on unemployment? We utilised the data from surveys of professional social workers in four Nordic countries. Our analyses showed that individualistic attitudes towards the unemployed appeared to be rather rare among Nordic social workers. However, attitudinal differences were found between and within countries.     

Youth, unemployment and political marginalisation

The article investigates the impact of being unemployed on political marginalisation among young people. Are unemployed youth politically marginalised compared with employed youth? Is the impact of unemployment on political marginalisation related to the development of the welfare state? Based on Marshall’s concept of social citizenry, and Esping‐Andersen’s theory of decommodification politics, the impact of unemployment on political marginalisation was expected to be least in the most‐developed welfare states. In these countries, welfare policies were expected to counteract marginalisation among the unemployed. The analyses were based on the Eurobarometer survey Young Europeans from 1990. Three aspects of political marginalisation were investigated: political confidence, political interest and political extremism. Unemployed youth express less confidence in politics, they talk less about politics and they more frequently support revolutionary political ideas, compared with employed youth. The greatest difference in political confidence between unemployed and employed is found in Great Britain, while Italy represents a deviant case where the unemployed have more confidence than the employed. The development of the welfare state does not appear to be a crucial factor for political confidence among the unemployed.     

Unemployment and psychological distress among young adults in the Nordic countries: A review of the literature

This article reviews Nordic research, published from 1995 and onwards, on the relationship between unemployment and mental health among young adults. Cross‐sectional, longitudinal and time‐series studies are included. Cross‐sectional studies show that the unemployed experience more mental health problems than the non‐unemployed. Leaving unemployment is associated with increased well‐being. Economic problems, feelings of shame and poor social support increase the likelihood of psychological distress. The longitudinal studies show that unemployment increases the risk of psychological distress and attempted suicide, after initial mental health status and confounding factors are accounted for. The relationship remains significant when time‐invariant characteristics of the individuals are controlled for. The time‐series studies found no relationship between unemployment and suicide, but levels of psychological distress were found to vary with changes in the labour market. This relationship remained significant after excluding the non‐employed, indicating that unemployment trends have effects beyond those directly associated with unemployment.     

Equal opportunities,true options or hidden unemployment? A comparative perspective on labour‐market marginality

Previous studies have shown that women generally adjust to unemployment better than men. This study shows that young women value work equally as highly as men, and have negative feelings when unemployed, which indicates the existence of a closed gender gap. However, children have a different influence on men's and women's unemployment experiences. Being a parent increases job-search activity and work involvement among men. On the other hand, children moderate negative experiences of unemployment among women, and they decrease their job-search activity and work involvement. Being a parent increases labour-market marginality among young unemployed women. For young men it is a motivational factor for searching for and getting a job. The comparison shows furthermore that patterns of re-employment vary in the involved countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Scotland. They reflect differences in the overall unemployment situation in the countries and the welfare strategies applied.     

Youth unemployment and mental health – gender differences and economic stress

This article accounts for a study among 81 unemployed people under 25 years of age and 143 youth trainees in a small municipality in central Sweden. The results show an explicit relationship between unemployment and mental ill health among young people. One unemployed man of four and every second unemployed woman feels that the mental well-being grew worse when they became unemployed. The opposite is experienced by one male youth trainee of four and four female youth trainees of ten, who state that their mental well-being improved when they got into a youth training program after having earlier been unemployed. The results also show that young people with poor finances on the whole have more mental troubles and anxiety about the future than young people with good finances have. The article discusses possible explanations for the patterns with respect to gender and the private financial situations that appear in the results.     

Labour market integration of unemployed youth from a life course perspective: the case of Norway

The aim of this article is to analyse the labour market integration of previously unemployed youth in a life course perspective. 'Work, Lifestyle and Health' is a longitudinal panel survey following a sample of nearly 2,000 individuals who are representative of the Norwegian cohorts born between 1965 and 1968. The survey was first conducted in 1985 with follow-ups in 1987, 1989, 1993 and again in 2003. Unemployment among young people does not necessarily lead to marginalisation and social exclusion. Long-term effects will be dependent upon how the youths cope with unemployment, the duration of the unemployment period, their mental health status and educational qualifications. Many young unemployed people are not entitled to unemployment benefits because they lack work experience. Consequently, they are dependent on support from their family and/or social assistance. However, there is still much to learn about the long-term consequences of youth unemployment, e.g. whether or not the youths have received social assistance and what are the long-term consequences for their future labour market career and labour market integration.     

Attitudes towards the unemployed. An analysis of Swedish survey data

To be unemployed is often associated with being stigmatised by others. People may blame the unemployed themselves, insist that they could find a job if they tried harder, maintain that too little is demanded from recipients of unemployment benefits and consider differences in standard of living between the unemployed and the employed too small. This article is aimed at studying the prevalence of such negative attitudes and to examine the determinants behind them. In May 2000, questions were added on to a randomly selected subsample in the regular Swedish labour force survey. The results indicate that own unemployment experience and perceived risks of becoming unemployed make people less apt to blame the unemployed. Having family members or close friends with unemployment experience tends to have a similar impact. In contrast, young people more often express stigmatising attitudes. With respect to social class position the results are divided.     

Unemployment in Poland - causes and remedial measures

This article describes unemployment and labor market policy in Poland after 1989. The analysis is based on official statistics, legislation and Polish social science literature. The unemployment situation in Poland is continually changing. Conclusions drawn by social scientists in 1991 and 1992 no longer give an adequate account of labor market trends in 1995. Steeply rising unemployment is the most traumatic upheaval in post-Communist Polish society. At the end of 1989, the number of people looking for work in Poland was far less than the number of available jobs. But by the end of 1992 there were 62 job-seekers for every job opening, dropping to 56 in September 1994. The social problems associated with unemployment vary from region to region. Women and young people predominate among the unemployed. The Polish government set up a Work Fund in January 1990 to alleviate unemployment. The Work Fund is the first real measure taken to assist the unemployed, but new legislation is needed if it is to become more effective.     

The welfare state as a context for children's development: a study of the effects of unemployment and unemployment protection on reading literacy scores

Data were analysed from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) to examine whether the relationship between parental unemployment status and child reading literacy is modified by the level of unemployment protection provided by the nation. The sample consisted of 61,946 children, nested in 3,918 schools among 17 market economies. The results of multi-level analyses indicated that, after controlling for a range of individual, family and school covariates, children with unemployed fathers in all countries had significantly lower reading literacy scores than those of employed fathers (β = −8.84, SE = 2.01). The contextual effect of unemployment protection was not significant after accounting for fathers' employment status (β = −18.63, SE = 16.26). However, there was a significant negative interaction between unemployment protection and fathers' unemployment, yielding the unexpected suggestion that, in countries with higher levels of unemployment protection, children with unemployed fathers fare worse, both in relation to children with unemployed fathers in lower protection countries, and in comparison with children with employed fathers (β = −26.96, SE = 8.08). Possible explanations are advanced for this result, including the potential for a 'discouraged child effect' arising from the potential association between unemployment protection and higher local unemployment rates (though unemployment rates at the national level were not significant).     

Some Psychological Effects of Unemployment in School Leavers

The purpose of this study was to investigate some psychological effects of unemployment on young people. Questionnaires requesting attitudes, expectations and experience of employment and unemployment, and containing a variety of psychological measures were administered to 118 intending school leavers when they were still at school and seven months later. In general it was found that attitudes to work differed little between the unemployed and the employed, but that the unemployment experience did result in psychological consequences for the individual in terms of loss of happiness and self esteem.     

Socio‐Economic Factors and Mental Health of Young People in India and China: An Elusive Link with Globalization

Globalization and its related social, cultural, and economic changes have significant mental health outcomes for young people. However, mental health disorders among youth are seldom included in the range of problems linked to globalization. It is imperative that these multifaceted associations are considered in light of the substantial and increasing burden of disease caused by mental illness, particularly in Asian countries, which are comparatively young and in next few decades will be the major sources of the growth of world’s young population. The evidence reviewed in this study makes an argument that globalization has increased [relative] poverty and deprivation, social and income inequality, migration, occupational stress, educational competition, and educated unemployment in India and China. Simultaneously there is evidence which shows that these variables are causally linked with mental health of young people. Altogether, these phenomena are accompanied by higher rates of suicide among lower class, migrant, and student youth. This substantiates the proposition that globalization has significant consequences for the mental health of young people. Some interventions for debate and discussion are considered.     

Personal financial situation during unemployment and mental health

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the personal financial situation during unemployment and the connection between financial situation and mental health in a sample ( n =213) of unemployed Norwegians. The results indicate that the unemployed suffered high financial deprivation compared with their own subjective standards, their situation when working, their neighbors and friends, and the average population. However, the unemployed did not constitute a homogeneous group in financial terms. In particular, the young unemployed experienced substantial financial problems. Among men, the reduction in income, few leisure facilities and many financial adjustments were closely related to mental health problems. Women who experienced that their income was substantially reduced compared with that of neighbors and friends and women who had carried out many financial adjustments were in poorer mental health than the other women in the sample. The findings are discussed in relation to relevant aspects of the life situation of the unemployed and other research results.     

The perceived fair duration of unemployment benefits for older workers. The role of lifetime achievements in the labour market

The welfare state regulates social policies and reallocates scarce resources. For the social legitimacy of the welfare state, it is important that the public supports the principles underlying this reallocation. This article examines the impact of different activities during the life course on public deservingness perceptions of older unemployed people. In a factorial survey experiment conducted among a random sample of individuals drawn from German administrative employment records, we examine the maximum duration of benefit receipt which is perceived as fair for older unemployed persons with different biographies. The results indicate strong public support for a nexus between previous contributions and benefit entitlements. Besides financial contributions to unemployment insurance, parenting and further training are considered to be ‘lifetime achievements’ which justify longer unemployment benefit receipt. We interpret these findings as an expression of a generalised form of reciprocity which guides perceptions of deservingness regarding older unemployed persons.     

Unemployment in Spain

This article describes the problem of unemployment in Spain and its recent evolution. Data on unemployment in relation to economic growth and some basic demographic characteristics are presented. We also analyze programs designed to reduce unemployment and others to protect unemployed people as different aspects of developing the welfare state in Spain. The framework for analyzing the welfare state is the evolution of industrial relations. Other problems about unemployment are analyzed, including geographical disparities between northern and southern Spain, where rural unemployment is especially severe. We offer an overall perspective on the problem and the government initiatives to ameliorate it.     

Psychological Weil-Being Among Unemployed and Employed People After a Company Closedown: A Longitudinal Study

In a three-year longitudinal study, we examined the effects of unemployment and the fear of becoming unemployed on the psychological well-being of 1153 employees at a shipyard that was closed down, and a control group of 441 employees from another, operative shipyard. On all three questionnaires, unemployed people were significantly lower in psychological well-being than employed people. Change to or from employment was significantly associated with changes in psychological well-being, whereas remaining employed or unemployed did not lead to any systematic changes in psychological well-being. Among employed people, the fear of unemployment was strongly associated with reduced psychological well-being. Thus, the health-related consequences of unemployment affect not only the unemployed but also employed people who have little job security. Consequently, we stress the need to create new workplaces and to implement reforms that can reduce job insecurity in the labor market.     

Association Between Unemployment Duration and Depression in the SouthWest Region of Turkey: A Cross-Sectional Study

ABSTRACT

Unemployment has risen as an effect of globalization in the country of Turkey. To date, no studies have examined the association between the duration of unemployment and perceived mental health. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the association between the duration of unemployment and the incidenence of depression among citizens in the southwest region of Turkey. A questionnaire was developed and distributed to 908 unemployed individuals. The questionnaire gathered sociodemographic characteristics and employment-related circumstances. To measure mental health, a depression inventory was administered and group-wise t-tests and logistic regressions were conducted. The findings show that long-term unemployed persons had more episodes of depressive moods in the past 12 months when compared with the group of the short-term unemployed. In addition, depression levels were higher among the long-term unemployed compared with the short-term unemployed. It was estimated that the duration of unemployment and the measurement of depression had a positive correlation. Risk factors that increased depression in the short-term unemployed were gender (female), older age, and greater periods of unemployment. However, higher education, income, and having social insurance significantly decreased the risk of developing depression for both the short-term and the long-term unemployed. Future recommendations include supportive counseling to increase motivation levels and developing strategies to handle periods of unemployment.     

Unemployment, shame and ill health — an exploratory study

Unemployed young people in six Swedish municipalities were studied in respect of the degree of shaming elements experienced by them in their social environment and in respect of mental ill health. The nature of the investigation was exploratory. The study shows that experience of shaming elements in the environment owing to unemployment is relatively frequent. A larger proportion of the long-term unemployed and men account for more shaming elements than do the short-term unemployed and women. It seems as if the factor of shaming elements in the environment is important in order to understand the adverse health-related consequences of unemployment. A greater proportion of those who live in a more shaming environment show mental disorders, deteriorated health, changes in living habits, activities and social relations, than do those living in a less shaming environment. This report discusses possible explanations of the results in the light of existing moral concepts of work and unemployment, as well as of shaming attitudes towards the unemployed.     

USING BUDGET CONSTRAINTS TO ILLUSTRATE POVERTY TRAPS: THE CASE OF YOUNG PART-TIME WORKERS IN AUSTRALIA

Although much is known about the incidence of unemployment in Australia over the recent past, the causes of unemployment remain controversial. Various explanations have been advanced, some of which focus on the unemployment benefits system. The present study examines the problem of high effective marginal tax rates faced by young social security recipients wishing to engage in part-time employment, and the resultant emergence of so-called ‘poverty traps’. We examine budget constraints for unemployed eighteen year olds, both singles and couples, for part-time employment in four low income occupations; namely, brickie's labourer, public service clerk, stationhand and sales assistant. The results indicate that pervasive disincentive effects exist for young people seeking low wage employment.