Coping with unemployment: a literature review and presentation of a new model

This paper reviews the unemployment literature with a view to identifying a new way of modelling the process of coping with unemployment. The review shows that early models of coping adopted a trait-based approach, which viewed coping as a stable, transcending disposition of the person and, therefore, failed to consider the range of coping responses that people use during unemployment. The use of state-based approaches to coping, in more recent research, has overcome this problem. However, the newer models still assess coping via discrete, linear relationships and have focused primarily on the obtainment of re-employment rather than promotion of psychological health during unemployment. In an attempt to overcome these problems, the 'Coping, Psychological and Employment Status' (CoPES) model is presented in the current paper. This new and comprehensive model illustrates the non-recursive relationships between stressors, cognitive appraisals, coping efforts and psychological health during unemployment. The CoPES model also depicts the relationship between coping, psychological health and re-employment. This model provides a more integrated approach to coping with unemployment and allows for the examination of new relationships. The CoPES model, applied within Ipsative-Normative designs and assessed using quantitative and qualitative techniques, will make a significant contribution to research conducted into unemployment.