The study concerned possible mediators and moderators in the relations
hip between unemployment and psychological distress. The sample consis
ted of 58 unemployed and 177 employed 36-year-old Finnish people drawn
from the ongoing Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study of Personality and Soci
al Development. Data were gathered by means of a mailed questionnaire,
a semistructured interview, and personality inventories. The results
showed that poor economic situation, and poor self-esteem as measured
by Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale, mediated the relationship between un
employment and psychological distress even after controlling for the p
rior level of self-esteem. Psychological distress was defined as psych
ological ill-health (the General Health Questionnaire), depressive sym
ptoms (the General Behavior Inventory), and anxiety (the Karolinska Sc
ales of Personality). However, support was also found for an alternati
ve model, in which depressive symptoms functioned as a mediator betwee
n long unemployment and poor self-esteem, suggesting that individuals
may react to unemployment in different ways.