Graduating College Students and Unemployment: A Study of Desire and Stress

In the literature of capitalism, there are many studies concerning the effect of capitalism on stress (Kasser, 1993; Olson, 2006; Thompson, 2013). There are also many studies regarding how capitalism affects college students (Macdougal, 2014; Ritchie, 2001). However, there is little research regarding how the system of capitalism affects college students. This study tests how students graduating from college feel about our current economic system. This study looks for a correlation between their feelings towards capitalism, their socioeconomic status, and their perspectives on job prospects. This study utilizes the Work Hope Scale (Juntunen 2006), and adapted versions of the A Scale to Measure the Desire to be Dead (Lester, 2013), the Strategic Locus of Control Scale (Hodgkinson, 1993) and a measure of socioeconomic status. The Scale to Measure the Desire to be Dead (Lester 2013) was adapted in order to measure the desire to work and participate in this economic system.The study included a sample of 40 student participants, mostly from a liberal arts university in northern California. Participants were recruited via classes at a private institution and social media, including Facebook and Instagram. It is expected that those who have lower socioeconomic status will have less interest in participating in our economic system. It is expected that those with a lower work hope rating will also have less desire to participate in this economic system. Finally, it is expected that those who have low socioeconomic status and a low work hope score will have the least desire to participate. Because of the implications of our capitalist economic system on society, any change in participation would have far reaching consequences. Because of the amount of students graduating college, and how they will affect our society as a whole, it is important to study how they view our societal and economic systems. If those students are going to make a change to these systems it would be helpful and important to know this in advance