ADJUSTMENT

Research was concerned with determining mobility and situational factors linked to the behavior and attitudes of job-displaced workers, and examining the influence of each variable in explaining the social consequences of unemployment. Data were derived from interviews with 260 white, blue-collar respondents from a larger random sample of former employees of an automobile manufacturing plant which closed operations in 1956. The interviews were conducted in 1958, about 27 months after the shutdown. The major components of adjustment to job displacement selected as dependent variables were: (1) personal alienation as measured by a seven-item version of the Srole Anomia Scale, (2) satisfaction with life as measured by a four-item scale, and (3) social participation as measured by contact with relatives and friends. Independent variables were age, education, skill level, unemployment status, number of months of unemployment, degree of economic deprivation, and the amount of variance explained by each combination of five at a time. Data indicated that the situational factor (the degree of economic deprivation) was more important than the mobility factor (post-displacement job pattern) in shaping the attitudes and behavior o