Towards a sociological understanding of mental well-being among the unemployed: The role of economic and psychosocial factors

Classic research on unemployment and mental health has focused on the funct ions of employment. These functions are considered to be of equal importanc e for all unemployed. A critique of this perspective has been that it views the unemployed as passive and homogeneous. Instead, an agency approach has been suggested, which focuses oh the individual goals of the unemployed. T his paper develops and tests a model for understanding the differentiated m ental consequences of unemployment, which on a theoretical level integrates both the structural restrictions of the unemployment situation and the age ncy of the individual. The model is based on previous findings which indica te that mental well-being is dependent on the economic need for employment, on the one hand, and on the psychosocial need for employment, on the other hand. The model integrates both these aspects and the results show that th e combined effect is of central importance for the differentiated mental we ll-being of the unemployed. The analysis is based on a longitudinal survey of 3,500 randomly selected, unemployed Swedes.