job.
It is not simply the loss of employment that keeps individuals in a prolonged state of depression or otherwise poor health, but rather the series of negative events that follows that loss. It is the crises that follow job loss that are more damaging than the loss itself.
Dr. Price and his colleagues investigated the link between job loss and depression, damaged functioning and poor health in a study of 756
job-seekers who were involuntarily unemployed for roughly three months or less and had no hopes of being recalled to their former positions. The study participants were 33 years old, on average, and most had completed high school.
Overall, the financial pressure that resulted from the participants' unemployment led to a series of negative life events. For example, if some people lose their jobs, they may have difficulty making a car payment, which can cause them to lose their cars, and then lose their abilities to search
for jobs. In addition, losing healthcare benefits due to unemployment will affect a person's ability to care for a family member with a life-long illness, all of which can create a huge pressure on family relationships. Such negative events seem to have caused the study participants to have more symptoms of depression and a greater perception that they had lost personal
control, including lowered self-esteem, study findings indicate. Further, this depression and perceived loss of personal control remained evident in follow-ups conducted six months and two years later, when 60% and 71% of the study participants had been re-employed and were working at least 20 hours a week. What's more, the study participants' perceived loss of personal control led to reports of poor health and poor emotional functioning in daily tasks.