Introduction

Korea has been in a spiral of unprecedented unemployment since it received bailouts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In mid 1998, when restructuring, including layoffs were underway, the official real number reached 1.6 million, raising the sense of social crisis. The IMF’s bailout seemed to have solved the problem of unemployment, but in 2001, the number of official unemployed workers exceeded 1 million again. In addition, the first restructuring by layoffs was mainly focused on manufacturing workers, but after the 1980s, middleclass managers, experts, and office workers were the main targets, and the layoff rate of men and higher education workers has been increasing gradually [1] According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Employment Outlook 2018, Korea had the highest turnover rate among the OECD countries [2] at 31.8% and a relatively weak social safety net for loss of income in the reemployment process. Also, the reemployment rate in Korea within 1 year after the dismissal of a worker was 46.1%, which was slower compared with other OECD countries such as the United States (57.8%), Japan (50.8%), and Australia (73.6%).

In the absence of a social security system, unemployment not only poses a fundamental threat to the right to live for individual workers, but also has a negative effect on the entire family, which can threaten the structure of the family and the overall social structure. The prevalence of family crises among Koreans is 50%, and the frequency of economic crisis (e.g., unemployment) was the highest among the family crises [3]. In periods of economic recession and overall industrial change, problems related to unemployment can be a factor that makes the social cost more burdensome. Therefore, it is necessary to expand mental health programs that can facilitate the process from unemployment to reemployment, and to focus more on the mental health problems of unemployed people at the national level.

From a psychological perspective, unemployment is linked to the following negative results: First, it was found that the loss of economic independence and social role performances due to the decrease of economic resources obtained from a fixed income were insolvent. Second, it leads to involuntary interruption of the mutual relationship between individuals and the organization. Third, unemployment means loss of work, which, for many, is the basis of achievement, self-realization, and self-identity [4, 5, 6]. Also, the increase in anxiety and tension due to unemployment has been demonstrated by many empirical studies [7, 8, 9]. McKee-Ryan, Song, Wanberg, and Kinicki [10] examined 52 cross-sectional studies that compared the health of unemployed and employed people and found that those who were unemployed had significantly poorer mental health, life satisfaction, family satisfaction, and subjective physical health. Unemployment has been linked to increases in the suicide rate among middle-aged people. According to the distribution trend of suicide rates by age in Korea (the number of suicides per 100,000 ages), the suicide rate of young people in their 20s was the highest in 1983, but the suicide rate of young people in their 20s was lowered in 1993, while the suicide rate of older people rose [11]. Comparing the distribution of suicide rates by age in 1993 and 2003, it can be seen that the suicide rate is increasing as the age of the population increases, and the suicide rate of adults aged over 50 years has been increasing very rapidly recently.

In stress situations, unemployed people are more likely to cope with stress by self-reading or wishful thinking rather than actively coping and avoiding behavior. In a study by Ahn, Tak, Yoo, Han, and Han [12], dysfunctional coping, reemployment restriction requirements, employment commitment, and job search intensity had negative effects on mental health, whereas self-esteem, life satisfaction, adaptive coping, and social support had positive effects. However, most of the studies conducted in Korea have been based on specific mediating variables such as family resilience [13] and perceived social support [14, 15]. Therefore, there is a relative lack of understanding of the various emotion regulation strategies and influences used by unemployed people. Therefore, this study examined the types of spontaneous groups that are derived according to the emotional-centered coping strategies for unemployed people, and explored the probability of being classified into each group according to the psychiatric symptoms.

The present study

In this study, we have focused on identifying the characteristics of each subgroup by classifying unemployed people into subgroups according to the use of emotional regulation strategies through latent profile analysis. This study derived latent profiles based on one negative emotion regulation strategy and four adaptive emotion regulation strategies (Fig 1). We also examined whether the probability of belonging to each group derived based on emotion regulation strategies differs according to the psychiatric symptoms of unemployed people. According to previous studies, people with vulnerability to depression were more likely to use negative emotional regulation strategies such as avoidance [33], rumination [20, 33], and reinterpretation [32]. In addition, the group with low emotional acceptance and awareness showed higher anxiety level [28, 38], and the group with low emotional acceptance and awareness showed higher somatization in the group without expressing negative emotions [42, 45]. In this study, the probability of being classified into each group would be different according to psychiatric symptoms of the unemployed people.

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Fig 1. Research model.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236937.g001

Research Question 1: Are there qualitatively distinct emotional regulation strategy profile of unemployment people?

Research Question 2: Do demographic information and psychiatric symptoms predict emotional regulation strategy profile membership?

Methods

Results

Descriptive analysis

Correlations and means/standard deviations of all variables are shown in Table 1. The results of correlation analysis showed that negative emotion regulations strategies had a significant positive correlation with depression, somatization, and anxiety. Also, the three types of adaptive emotion regulation strategies were found to have a significant negative correlation with depression and anxiety. On the other hand, attention distractive and approach strategies showed significant negative correlation with somatization and state anxiety, while support seeking strategies did not show significant correlation.

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Table 1. Bivariate correlations and descriptive statistics.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236937.t001

Identification and description of latent classes

Model fit indices for the five classes are reported in Table 2. As a result of the study, when AIC, BIC, and SABIC compared to 2 class solution, the value became smaller as the number of profiles increased significantly, and the Entropy value was .80 in 4 class solution, which was suitable for classification criteria. Class 5 also meets the criteria for the quality of classification and information index, but the group of less than 5% of the total participants is derived and did not consider it as the final model. Shin and Son [44] mentioned that it is difficult to interpret meaningfully in small groups of less than 5% of the total cases, and judged that the group was not suitable for the classification of potential profiles. In this study, the 4 class model was selected as the most suitable model by combining the quality of classification and information index results.

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Table 2. Fit indices for one-to five class models.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236937.t002

Fig 2 depicts the pattern of mean scores across the latent classes of the four class model. The names of each classes were based on the level of negative emotion regulation and three positive emotion regulations. First, class 1 was named as "low emotion regulation class" (n = 48, 15%) as the group with the lowest use of positive emotion regulation strategies. The second group named the fourth group was named as “adaptive emotional regulation class” (n = 56, 18%) using low negative emotion regulation strategy and high positive strategies. The third group was named "low negative emotional regulation-moderate positive regulation class" (n = 149, 47%) because all the emotion regulation strategies appeared to be intermediate level. Finally, the fourth group was named "high negative emotional regulation-support seeking class" (n = 65, 20%) as a class that used negative emotion regulation the most and used support seeking emotional regulation strategy.

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Fig 2. Characteristics of classes.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236937.g002

Demographic and psychiatric symptoms predictors of emotional regulation classes.

In the study, the probability of each group being classified according to the age, job search period, and emotional psychiatric symptoms(depression, somatization, anxiety) of unemployed people was examined (see Table 3). First, the reference group of class 1(low emotion regulation class) showed that the longer the period of unemployment and the more the experience of somatization symptoms and anxiety, the higher the probability of belonging to class 1(low emotion regulation class) than class 2(adaptive emotion regulation class), and the higher the depression level and lower anxiety, the higher the probability of belonging to class 4(low emotion regulation class) than class 1(high negative emotion regulation-support seeking class). The result of comparing class 1(low emotion regulation class) and class 2(adaptive emotion regulation class) means that the longer the job search period and the higher the level of somatization and anxiety, the less positive emotion regulation strategies such as attention distractive, approach, and support seeking are used. Also, the result of comparing class 1(low emotion regulation class) and class 3(low negative emotion regulation-moderate positive regulation class) is similar, and the lower the somatization level, the more adaptive strategies are included in the group. Next, compared to class 2(adaptive emotion regulation class), class 3(low negative emotion regulation-moderate positive regulation class) showed higher levels of somatization and anxiety, while class 4(high negative emotion regulation-support seeking class) showed higher levels of somatization. This means that unemployed people with high somatization and anxiety use less adaptive emotion regulation strategies. Both groups had longer job search months than class 2. The higher the level of depression, the higher the probability of belonging to class 4 (high negative emotion regulation-support seeking class) than class 3(low negative emotion regulation-moderate positive regulation class). This means that the group who has long unemployment and experienced depression symptoms is more likely to use maladaptive strategies and support seeking strategy that other adaptive regulation strategy.

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Table 3. Associations between psychosocial predictors and class membership.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236937.t003

Discussion

This study explored the subgroups of people using emotion regulation strategies among the unemployed people and examined how psychiatric symptoms affected the probability of being classified into a group. As a results of study, four sub-classes(low emotion regulation class, adaptive emotional regulation class, low negative emotional regulation-moderate positive regulation class, high negative emotional regulation-support seeking class) were derived. In addition, it was found that in some classes, the probability of belonging to certain groups was affected by psychiatric symptoms.

Class 1(low emotion regulation class) was the lowest among the four groups in the use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies, and the use of negative emotion regulation strategies was also low. The results of this study are partly consistent with the results of Lee, Kim, and Choi [23] who observed low scores in overall emotional coping strategies. Lee et al. [23], found that the group with emotional coping levels was not significantly higher than the other groups, and the researchers interpreted this finding to be due to the fact that the level of emotional coping was low but other coping levels (e.g., problem-focused coping) were high, they would not experience maladjustment. In addition, it is consistent with the results of previous studies [6, 67] conducted in Korea that have shown that unemployed people are likely attempt to get out of a job-loss situation by immersing themselves in education or job search activities for reemployment after unemployment. In other words, it can be assumed that some unemployed people will use the coping strategy of problem-solving to gain reemployment rather than strategies to control their emotions or alleviate symptoms.

Class 2 was the adaptive emotion regulation class, which showed the lowest use of negative emotion regulation strategies and the highest use of positive emotion regulation strategies. The results of this study are consistent with the results of a previous study [23] that derived a “high-regulation group” that attempts to control emotion. Class 2 showed the highest average in the order of attentional distraction, approach, and support seeking in using adaptive emotion regulation strategies, and when compared with other classes, it was generally found that all three types of adaptive strategies were used frequently by the class. This indicates that there may be groups that use various adaptive emotion regulation strategies simultaneously. Therefore, in counseling, it is necessary to understand what the emotion regulation strategies are that the clients mainly use and train them to use various adaptive strategies according to the situation. For example, in situations where support-seeking strategies are difficult to use, counselors can teach clients how to distract attention from uncomfortable emotions or how to deal with emotions more actively.

Class 3 was the low negative emotion regulation-moderate positive regulation class, and all the emotion regulation strategies were used at moderate levels. This class uses various strategies (e.g., support seeking, attention distraction, and approach strategies) to positively change emotions. Similarly, Park and Kim [68] found that unemployed people used self-regulation strategies such as efforts to change their mood, focus on reality, tolerance or acceptance of negative emotions, and efforts to stabilize emotions. The present study showed that, in this class, adaptive emotion regulation strategies are used evenly and involve individual adaptive efforts to control negative emotions. This class most reflects the cultural characteristics of Korea. In the case of the Korean people, they recognize their efforts as very important factors when coping with stress situations. Those who are unemployed try to overcome their difficulties by overcoming the related psychological difficulties.

Class 4 was the negative emotion regulation-support seeking class, which was the highest in the use of negative emotion regulation and the group that used support-seeking strategies most frequently among the adaptive emotion regulation strategies. The results of this study are partly consistent with the results of Lee et al. [23] who derived the "high divergence behavior group" with high negative behavior. Class 3 group is a group that blames others to control negative emotions in the unemployed situation or emits emotions in a safe situation, and uses negative methods such as rumination and addictive behavior.

As a result of examining the probability of being classified into each group according to demographic characteristics and psychological symptoms, the higher the somatization level, the higher the probability of being classified into class 1 (low emotion regulation class) than class 3(low negative emotion regulation-moderate positive regulation class). It means that the level of somatization is high and it is difficult to use support seeking, attention dispersion, and approach strategy. The results of this study are similar to those of a previous study [69] that found that people with high somatization symptoms are too careful to notice, amplify, perceive, or be caught up in symptoms and interpret the problem as physical causes. Lee, Lee, Yoon, Yang, Mun, Jung, and Eun [70] reported that patients who experienced somatization symptoms may have lower the use of the overall emotion regulation strategy because it attributes everything to the problem of the body rather than the attempt to control the emotion.

Class 2(adaptive emotion regulation class) was a group with a high probability of belonging to people with low psychological symptoms. Specifically, when compared with class 3(low negative emotion regulation class), the lower the level of anxiety, the higher the probability of belonging to class 2. This suggests that the higher the level of anxiety, the less the probability of using adaptive emotion regulation strategies and the less the attempt to recognize or control emotions [36].

Class 3 (low negative emotion regulation-moderate positive regulation class) was lower in depression level than class 4 (negative emotion regulation-support seeking class). In other words, depressed people use maladaptive strategies more frequently and prefer help-seeking strategies rather than emotional regulation strategies such as attentional dispersion or approach. These results are consistent with the results of previous studies [17, 20] that showed that depressed people use more negative emotional regulation strategies such as rumination and use limited active strategies such as problem solving and cognitive reconstruction.

The theoretical implications of this study are as follows. First, this study divided emotion regulation strategies into maladaptive strategy, attentional distraction strategy, approach strategy, and support-seeking strategy and examined which subgroup was formed according to emotion regulation strategies. This is meaningful in that it extended existing studies on emotion regulation strategies through a person-centered approach, assuming that everyone can use various emotion regulation strategies beyond the existing variable-centered approach that examined the relationship between the subtypes of emotion regulation strategies and psychiatric symptoms. In particular, it is meaningful that people mainly use some types of emotion regulation strategies and look at the characteristics of each type. Second, there have been claims that psychiatric symptoms is connected to the problem of emotion regulation strategies, and although emotion regulation related studies are actively conducted, there are limited studies on the relationship between various mental disorders and emotion regulation strategies. Through this study, we examined the possibility of people with psychiatric symptoms being classified into types according to the use of emotion regulation strategies, and it is expected that it will be possible to understand emotion regulation strategies of people with psychiatric symptoms in counseling and treatment and to intervene in efficiently controlling emotions.

This study has the following practical implications: First, it was found that unemployed people can experience various psychological difficulties such as depression, anxiety, and somatization after job loss, and they may employ different emotion regulation strategies depending on the types of psychiatric symptoms. Recently, emotion regulation studies [61, 71] have mentioned that various emotion regulation strategies need to be used in accordance with context or situation, and negative strategies may have a positive effect in specific situations. Therefore, it is necessary to help the unemployed to have complementary emotion regulation strategies by exploring how they regulate their emotions according to psychological difficulties and how these emotion regulation strategies can be linked to the difficulties or long-term unemployment that they experience after the unemployment. For example, unemployed people with high depression often use negative emotion regulation strategies, whereas only support-seeking strategies among positive emotion regulation strategies are likely to be classified as high groups. Therefore, it is necessary for unemployed people with high depression to lower negative emotion regulation strategies and to increase various emotion regulation strategies, such as attentional distraction and approach emotion regulation strategy.

Second, in this study, group with relatively high anxiety showed less use of emotion regulation strategies than adaptive group. In other words, unemployed people with high anxiety are more likely to engage in problem-solving behavior, such as constantly trying to find a job or receiving necessary re-education rather than recognizing and solving their emotions. In counseling, it is necessary to examine the health of the group from a long-term perspective, and if necessary to lower the level of anxiety and to intervene in using adaptive emotion regulation strategies.

Finally, in the case of the most adaptive group, group 2, negative emotion regulation strategies were used the least, whiles approach strategy, attention distractive strategy, and support-seeking strategy were used evenly. Moreover, this study showed that when the use of negative emotion regulation strategies of unemployed people is similarly low, the lower the somatization and anxiety, the more likely they are to be classified as a group that uses positive emotion regulation strategies. This means that positive emotional regulation strategies can have a positive effect on somatization and anxiety regardless of the level of negative emotional regulation strategies. The results of this study are somewhat different from the results of previous studies [49] which showed significant relationship between positive emotional regulation and psychological problems only when negative emotional regulation strategies are high. Rather, This means that positive emotional regulation strategies are likely to be linked to specific psychiatric symptoms such as negative emotional regulation strategies. In counseling, it is necessary to teach the client how to use the most efficient emotion regulation strategies according to the situation of the client rather than teaching only one of these emotion regulation strategies. Specifically, it is necessary for unemployed people to recognize their emotions, use the most appropriate emotion regulation strategy for the situation, and develop the emotion regulation ability to objectively evaluate the reduction of negative emotions.

Despite these implications, this study has the following limitations. First, the unemployed people who participated in this study may have had more desire to find a job compared with others because they participated in training programs such as the Women’s Job Center and the Vocational Education Center under the Ministry of Labor. In previous studies [46, 72], the presence of psychological symptoms was significantly different according to job search status and duration of unemployment. Second, since this study was a study conducted in Korea, it is necessary to consider the cultural background when interpreting the results. In Korea, the fear and helplessness experienced during the financial crisis of 1997 had lasting effects, and the psychological difficulties experienced by heads of households who cannot provide for their families economically can be severe because of the patriarchal nature of the culture. In addition, because a long-term social security system for unemployed people is not yet established and fragmentary support is being provided, the psychological burden on the unemployed in Korea is higher than that of the unemployed in countries where the social security system is better established. Next, because the definition and measurement tools of emotion regulation strategies change with the researcher, it is necessary to considering the concepts and subtypes of emotion regulation strategies used in this study when interpreting the results. In particular, this study measured negative emotion regulation strategies as one factor based on Lee & Kwon’s [73] findings, but it includes various types of negative emotion regulation strategies, such as blaming others, emotional expression in a safe situation, and addictive behavior. These strategies were classified as negative emotion regulation strategies through empirical research, but for unemployed people, there may be strategies with positive effects in the short term. Therefore, future studies should examine which groups are derived when more diverse classification criteria are used, and negative emotion regulation is treated as more than one factor. Finally, follow-up studies will need to use scales to measure more diverse mental health and behavioral problems. For example, according to age group, behavior problems such as Internet addiction may occur more frequently in young adults [74–76]. Therefore, it is necessary to examine whether each group according to the emotional regulation strategies of unemployed people has different behavioral results such as internet addiction and eating disorders.