Surviving Involuntary Unemployment Together: The Role of Resilience-Promoting Communication in Familial and Committed Relationships

Involuntary unemployment is an unfortunate circumstance not only for those without meaningful work, but also for families, family relationships, and committed long-term relationships. To explore the role that communication plays in helping family partners demonstrate resilience (i.e., competence and adaptation throughout the experience of a stressor), while dealing with involuntary unemployment, the current study surveyed a sample of 111 recently unemployed, relationally involved participants. The majority of these participants self-reported as married (40.6%) or indicated serious commitment (38.6%) with their relational partner. Communication strategies perceived as contributing to resilience with their partner were measured as Resilience-Promoting Communication (RPC). Bootstrapping mediation analysis determined that RPC dimensions emphasizing respect/harmony, partnership and tension release contributed to mediation of the relationship between feelings about job loss on relational satisfaction and commitment. In addition, respect/harmony moderated the relationship between both unemployment affect and commitment and satisfaction. Civility moderated the relationship between unemployment affect and satisfaction. Implications of these findings for theory and for families dealing with unemployment are discussed.