Psychological correlates of employment and unemployment: Effects, predisposing factors, and sex differences

A longitudinal study is described in which 1636 young people were studied while they were at school and again, two years later. Four groups were defined by their employment/occupational status on the second occasion: at school, employed, unemployed, or engaged in full‐time tertiary education. The purpose of the study was to distinguish those psychological correlates of status that could be classified as predisposing factors (antecedents), those that could be classified as effects (consequences), and those that could be assigned to both categories. As other studies have shown, the effects of leaving school seemed to be beneficial on some measures of psychological well‐being, even where the alternative was unemployment. Also, some interesting sex differences emerged with respect to both predisposing factors and effects.