Adult Depression
Shawn Wang, B.A.
Postbaccalaureate research assistant
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Julia Yarrington, M.A.
PhD candidate
University of California Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Allison V. Metts, M.A.
PhD Candidate
University of California, Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES, California
Brooke Cullen, B.A.
Lab Manager
University of California Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Richard LeBeau, Ph.D.
Psychologist
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Joseph Himle, Ph.D., MSW
Professor of Psychiatry
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Michelle G. Craske, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor
University of California Los Angeles
1285 Franz Hall, California
Title: Exploring the Effects of Employment History, Social Anxiety, and Depressive Symptoms on Job Seeking Behavior Authors: Shawn Wang, Julia S. Yarrington, Allison V. Metts, Brooke Cullen, Richard T. LeBeau, Joseph Himle, & Michelle G. Craske Implications: The relationship between length of unemployment and job search behaviors has implications for future interventions for the unemployed, as it can be used to personalize treatment and identify those who may need additional support and encouragement in order to increase their job seeking behaviors and subsequent employment success. These findings can also help inform the role that targeting other factors, such as comorbidity and life stressors, may play in the treatment of those who both experience mood/anxiety symptoms and are seeking employment.
Introduction: Employment can bolster mental health through improving self-reliance, confidence, and community integration, among other factors, which highlights the importance of job searching when unemployed for mental health. Evidence suggests that employment history is predictive of job search behaviors, with longer periods of unemployment being associated with less time and effort spent looking for jobs. Reductions in job searching behaviors are important to understand and target, as stress and financial burdens accumulate over prolonged periods of unemployment. Several possible mechanisms have been proposed, including frustration with unsuccessful attempts, self-defeating cognitions, and lack of motivation, each of which can be impacted by mood and anxiety disorders. While a number of studies have investigated the deleterious effects of unemployment on mental health, few have examined how psychopathology affects those who are unemployed as well as their job searching behaviors. The current study tests the hypothesis that employment history is a significant predictor of job search behavior while controlling for mood/anxiety symptoms.
Methods: The current study used data from a larger study examining an employment-focused intervention among a diverse and highly impaired sample of unemployed adults with social anxiety disorder (N = 275). A hierarchical linear regression was conducted to predict job search behaviors. Social anxiety and depression symptom severity at baseline were modeled at Step 1 and employment history at baseline, the length of time since their most recent job, were added at Step 2.
Results: Employment history predicted job search behavior over and above symptoms of social anxiety and depression, such that those with longer histories of unemployment reported engaging in significantly less job search behavior at baseline than those more recently unemployed (b = -1.96, p < .001).
