Arbetslöshet i relation till stress, coping, mentalt hälsotillstånd och attribution

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between perceived stress, copingstrategies, mental health and attributions in the unemployment situation, to study which copingstrategies that could predict mental health and whether any gender differences existed. Participants were 157 unemployed in the south of Sweden. Results from a questionnaire showed significant correlations between stress and the variables emotionfocused coping, venting, negative coping and mental health. Internal attribution showed significant negative correlations with problemfocused coping, and social support. Mental health correlated nega-tively with venting and negative coping, and positively with emotionfocused coping. Negative coping was found to be the best predictor of low mental health. Gender differences were found regarding the variables stress, coping and mental health. The alphalevel .05 was used in all data. One conclusion drawn is that peo-ple during unemployment tend to use negative forms of coping that affect mental health. Implications for further research were discussed. Keywords: unemployment, stress, coping, mental health, attributions