Job Seeking, Reemployment and Mental Health: A Randomized Field Experiment in Coping With Job Loss

Cognitive theories of adherence to difficult courses of action and findings from previous survey research on coping with a major life event—job loss—were used to generate a preventive interven-tion, tested by a randomized field experiment. The aim was to prevent poor mental health and loss of motivation to seek reemployment among those who continued to be unemployed and to promote high-quality reemployment. Ss were 928 recently unemployed adults from southeastern Michigan, representing a broad range of demographic characteristics; they were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control condition. The experimental intervention included training in job seek-ing with a problem-solving process emphasizing inoculation against setbacks and positive social reinforcement. A pretest was administered, followed by posttests 1 and 4 months after the experi-ment. The experimental condition yielded higher quality reemployment in terms of earnings and job satisfaction, and higher motivation among those who continued to be unemployed. Loss of a job is a major life event that affects nearly 10 million persons annually (Riegle, 1982). Studies indicate that job loss places these people at increased risk of poor mental health in terms of increased depression, anxiety, minor psychiatric mor-bidity, and decreased self-esteem and life satisfaction (e.g.