OLDER UNEMPLOYED WOMEN AND JOB SEARCH ACTIVITY - THE ROLE OF SOCIAL SUPPORT

Thirty unemployed female workers over the age of fifty were interviewe d in order to examine the relationship between the quality of social s upport provided by family and friends for their job search efforts and their job search intensity. The findings indicate that receiving posi tive social support for job search activities was significantly relate d to job search intensity. In addition, these workers perceived the su pportive messages provided by unemployed friends as more positive than the support messages provided by employed and retired family or frien ds. Implications of these findings for assessing the presence of posit ive social supports and for developing successful job search assistanc e programs for older unemployed women are discussed.