Research paperPsychological distress among the unemployed: Do core self-evaluations and emotional intelligence help to minimize the psychological costs of unemployment?
Introduction
Unemployment constitutes a significant economic and public health problem in the European Union. Eurostat and INE reported the highest unemployment rates in Greece (20.6%) and Spain (16.1%) (Eurostat Unemployment Database, 2018) with 3304,300 unemployed (Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE), 2018). It is well documented that during periods of economic recession, the prevalence of mental illness, distress, depression, and suicide increase alarmingly (Chang et al., 2013, Fitch et al., 2011, Haw et al., 2015, Katikireddi et al., 2012). In addition, as a result of economic and psychosocial changes associated with job loss (e.g., financial deprivation, diminished social status and social contact, reduced self-esteem between others, etc.) (Wanberg, 2012), levels of psychological well-being tend to decrease, and mental health-related symptoms such as anxiety and depression tend to appear (Winkelmann and Winkelmann, 1998). Therefore, interventions to help alleviate unemployment's consequences on well-being are a key component of policy response to cycles of recession. For instance, in a recent systematic review of interventions to reduce unemployment's psychosocial impact, Moore et al. (2017) found that integrative interventions focusing on social support, skill training, decision making, building self-esteem, increasing the sense of mastery and personal control, and inoculation against setbacks were effective for reducing the levels of depression up to two years post-intervention. Accordingly, other researchers have pointed out that interventions including both dispositional and social dimensions to help cope with job loss would reduce psychological distress (Latack et al., 1995, McKee-Ryan and Kinicki, 2002) and boost psychological well-being during unemployment (McKee-Ryan et al., 2005).
One relevant personal dimension included in these interventions is emotional intelligence (EI), which has emerged as a psychological construct systematically related to health behaviors, subjective well-being, and interpersonal functioning (Mayer et al., 2008). From an ability perspective, EI involves a set of basic emotional skills, such as the ability to perceive emotions, to access and generate emotions to enhance thought, to understand both emotions and emotional knowledge, and to regulate emotions (Mayer and Salovey, 1997). Research on EI has focused on examining the role of emotional abilities as predictors of health correlates (Keefer et al., 2009, Woolery and Salovey, 2004) and developing cognitive, affective, and behavioral strategies that help individuals to cope with stress, which leads to higher psychological health and well-being (Hodzic et al., 2017, Van Heck and Den Oudsten, 2008). Also, EI might be a fundamental construct in understanding the differences in how individuals manage the negative emotions associated with chronic unemployment. In fact, existing evidence suggests that EI plays a central role in unemployment, contributing to positive well-being (Hodzic et al., 2015, Extremera and Rey, 2016, Berrios et al., 2016).
Beyond EI, another personal resource that scholars have typically associated with well-being in unemployment is core-self evaluations (CSE) (McKee-Ryan et al., 2005). CSE is a cognitive appraisal defined as subjective and fundamental self-evaluation of effectiveness, perceived value, and individual skills (Judge et al., 2003). Scholars have characterized CSE with four personality aspects: self-esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control, and emotional stability (Judge et al., 2003, Yu, 2016). Prior researchers have found that CSE is likely a significant predictor of fewer mental health problems and greater well-being. Moreover, researchers have found CSE to be a significant predictor of positive coping strategies during unemployment (Virkes et al., 2017), better health (Virga & Rusu, 2018), and fewer psychological problems (e.g., anxiety, stress, and depression) (Rey et al., 2016) among unemployed adults. Given the predictive value of these theoretical constructs on well-being during unemployment alone, examining the confluence of EI and CSE would be important, as the interaction of EI and CSE together might better help in predicting emotional maladjustment during unemployment than would either construct separately. Different researchers have asserted the need to consider joint analysis of the influence of these emotional skills in interaction with other personality traits, such as CSE, that are considered shock absorbers of deficits in well-being and quality of life (Kammeyer-Mueller et al., 2009, Rey et al., 2016).
Researchers of EI have found that individuals who report low emotional abilities might still be able to attain positive outcomes if they believe in their own competence to tackle difficulties and to cope with adversity (e.g. Chan, 2008, Gohm et al., 2005, Salguero et al., 2015). Therefore, low EI might be associated with lower well-being among the unemployed, especially among those with low EI and low CSE. On the other hand, high EI might be related to high well-being among the unemployed, especially among those with high EI and high CSE. For example, Salguero et al. (2015) found that female students with high EI abilities reported lower depressive symptoms when they had higher emotional self-efficacy. Nevertheless, the negative association between EI and depression was most pronounced among women with low emotional self-efficacy, compared to their counterparts with high emotional self-efficacy. To date, no one has yet examined EI's contributive role with other forms of self-efficacy, such as CSE, as interactive predictors of positive and negative outcomes in an at-risk adult population (e.g., the unemployed).
Our main aim in this study was to examine the potential role of EI and CSE in predicting indicators of well-being (happiness) and symptoms of psychological distress (depression, anxiety, stress) among the unemployed. We had four specific objectives: (1) to examine the relationships between EI, CSE, well-being, and psychological distress; (2) to analyze whether EI accounts for significant variance in predicting well-being and psychological distress outcomes; (3) to see if the inclusion of CSE would significantly add to the prediction of additional unique variance beyond what EI can account for in predicting health indicators; and (4) to see whether a significant EI x CSE interaction exists that would account for further unique variances in predicting well-being and psychological distress outcomes beyond socio-demographic variables and main effects. Based on the aforementioned findings, we expected EI and CSE to positively associate with happiness and negatively relate to depression, anxiety, and stress. We predicted that EI would account for a significant amount of the variance in each of the indicators. We also expected the inclusion of CSE to significantly augment the prediction model of happiness and psychological distress outcomes in the unemployed. Finally, we hypothesized that a significant EI x CSE interaction in predicting outcomes would exist.
Section snippets
Participants and procedure
Participants provided their written informed consent and received a questionnaire set containing the measures assembled in the study. Inclusion criteria were being unemployed and actively looking for a job at the time of the survey. Approximately 65% of those approached were willing to participate. Overall, the final sample included 1796 participants (958 women, 53%). The mean age was 34.94 years (SD = 11.32; range 17 to 65). The average duration of unemployment was 21.72 months (SD = 40.26).
Emotional intelligence
We
Descriptive statistics and correlations
Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations, skewness, kurtosis, and reliabilities). As expected, both EI and CSE moderately and negatively correlated with depression, anxiety, and stress, and they positively and significantly related to happiness.
Hierarchical regression analysis
We conducted a series of hierarchical regression analyses to examine the contribution of EI and CSE alone and in combination in explaining happiness and psychological distress indicators. In the first step of our regression
Discussion
We designed the current study to examine the interplay between EI, CSE, happiness, and psychological distress symptoms in a relatively large sample of unemployed adults. Consistent with past research (McKee-Ryan et al., 2005, Moore et al., 2017, Rey et al., 2016), our findings suggest that positive resources, such as EI and CSE, showed unique and significant value as predictors of positive (happiness) and negative (depression, stress, and anxiety) psychological outcomes among unemployed adults.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest in this article.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
María Angeles Peláez-Fernández: Writing - original draft, Methodology, Formal analysis. Lourdes Rey: Funding acquisition, Writing - review & editing, Supervision. Natalio Extremera: Methodology, Resources, Supervision.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank all the unemployed people who generously participated in the study.
Funding source
This research was financed by University of Málaga (PPIT.UMA.B1.2017/23).
References (49)
- et al.
The relationship between core selfevaluations, employment commitment and well-being in the unemployed
Pers Individ Dif
(2009) - et al.
Emotional intelligence under stress: Useful, unnecessary, or irrelevant?
Pers Indiv Differ.
(2005) - et al.
Coping with unemployment: personality, role demands, and time structure
J Vocat Behav
(2013) - et al.
Core self-evaluations, job search behaviour and health complaints: The mediating role of job search self-efficacy
Career Dev Int
(2018) - et al.
The effects of leader and follower emotional intelligence on performance and attitude: An exploratory study
Leadersh Q
(2002) - et al.
Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions
(1991) - et al.
Psychometric properties of the Spanish version of Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales
Psicothema
(2005) - et al.
Exploring the socioemotional factors associated with subjective well-being in the unemployed
PeerJ
(2016) Emotional intelligence, self‐efficacy, and coping among Chinese prospective and in‐service teachers in Hong Kong
Educ Psychol
(2008)- et al.
Impact of 2008 global economic crisis on suicide: time trend study in 54 countries
Brit Med J
(2013)
A tripartite model of anxiety and depression: psychometric evidence and taxonomic implications
J Abnorm Psychol.
Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences
Examining a model of life satisfaction among unemployed adults
J Couns Psychol
Attenuating the negative impact of unemployment: The interactive effects of perceived emotional intelligence and well- being on suicide risk
Plos One
Validation of the Spanish version of the Wong Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS-S)
Psicothema
The relationship between personal debt and mental health: a systematic review
Mental Health Rev J
Misleading interaction and curvilinear terms
Psychol Methods
Computational procedures for probing interactions in OLS and logistic regression: SPSS and SAS implementations
Behav Res Methods
Economic recession and suicidal behaviour: possible mechanisms and ameliorating factors
Int J Soc Psychiatr
The effects of emotional competences training among unemployed adults: a longitudinal study
Appl Psychol. Health and Well-being.
How efficient are emotional intelligence trainings: A meta-analysis
Emot Rev
Why does self-reported emotional intelligence predict job performance? A meta-analytic investigation of mixed EI
J. Appl. Psychol
Cited by (20)
The relationship between role ambiguity and anxiety in intensive care unit nurses: The mediating role of emotional intelligence
2024, Intensive and Critical Care NursingThe impact of fear and anxiety of Covid-19 on life satisfaction: Psychological distress and sleep disturbance as mediators
2021, Personality and Individual DifferencesCitation Excerpt :In addition, a structural equations method essentially can be considered to analyze the data in this research. However, utilizing measures to construct the interaction terms in a structural equations model is seen as a complex process, and lacks a measure with which to examine the multicollinearity level (Peláez-Fernández et al., 2019). Also, structural equation model (SEM) relies on maximum likelihood estimation that requires multivariate normality (Jackson, 2003), something that was not satisfied by the data (Doornik & Hansen, 2008).
Shyness and depressive symptoms: a multiple mediation model involving core self-evaluations and sense of security
2021, Journal of Affective DisordersCitation Excerpt :Two possible constructs in this mechanism are sense of security and core self-evaluations. Shy individuals tend to have a psychological characteristic, namely a sense of insecurity (Zhao et al., 2020), and a cognitive characteristic, namely core self-evaluation (Zhao et al., 2018), both of which are important predictors of mental health (Iliceto et al., 2020; Peláez-Fernández et al., 2019). Besides, based on clinical experience, Blatt (1974) has distinguished between two types of personality-based depressive tendencies.
Thriving in the face of youth unemployment: The role of personal and social resources
2023, Journal of Employment CounselingMeasurement Impact of Core Self-Evaluation on Job Outcomes and The Role of Organizational Socialization
2023, Information Sciences LettersSocial Vulnerability Evaluation of Natural Disasters and Its Spatiotemporal Evolution in Zhejiang Province, China
2023, Sustainability (Switzerland)