Unemployment distress, reasons for job loss and causal attributions for unemployment in young people

Abstract

This paper reports analyses from a study of school leavers in which emotional reactions to unemployment were examined in relation to the reasons given for being unemployed. Young people who had left full‐time jobs through dismissal were no worse off than those who had left for other reasons. However, those who gave external causal attributions for their unemployment displayed higher self‐esteem and less hopelessness than those who gave internal causal attributions. On the other hand, the stability of causal attributions was not associated with hopelessness. The results arc discussed in relation to Weiner's (1985) attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion.