The Restorative Effect of Work After Unemployment: An Intraindividual Analysis of Subjective Well-Being Recovery Through Reemployment

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Zhou, Ying; Zou, Min; Woods, Stephen A.; Wu, Chia-Huei
• 署名单位: University of Surrey; University of Reading; Durham University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-9010
• DOI: 10.1037/apl0000393
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 1195-1206
• 关键词: recovery; unemployment; REEMPLOYMENT; Well-being; longitudinal data analysis

摘要

Previous research shows that unemployment has lasting detrimental effects on individuals' subjective well-being. However, the issue of how well-being evolves after individuals switch back into the labor force has received little theoretical and empirical attention. This study examines the extent to which reemployment restores individuals' subjective well-being following a period of unemployment. Applying fixed effects models to the large-scale longitudinal data from the British Household Panel Survey, we find that recovery of subjective well-being upon reemployment is fast, complete and enduring, even when individuals take less favorable employment options to return to work. By contrast, transitions into economic inactivity following unemployment are accompanied by persistent scars on subsequent well-being trajectories. This study advances our understanding of well-being development over the entire employment-unemployment-reemployment cycle.