A STUDY OF RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ANXIETY AND COPING SKILLS IN THE UNEMPLOYED IN A RECESSIONARY ECONOMY

FERRIS ANN FLETCHER, Purdue University

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between anxiety as measured by the State form of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and coping as measured by the Ways of Coping checklist's Problem-focused (P) and Emotion-focused (E) coping scales in a recessionary unemployed sample. In addition, the study sought to determine the degree of anxiety expressed by an unemployed sample and the effects of age, time since becoming unemployed and financial status on anxiety. One hundred seventy-seven subjects were sampled outside of Indiana Employment Security Offices in Lafayette, Logansport and Augusta, Indiana in July of 1983. The 71 questionnaires from white males with a high school diploma or its equivalent between the ages of twenty and sixty who had worked at skilled or semi-skilled jobs and were unemployed because of the recession were used in the final analyses. The deletion of 106 subjects was effected so that gender, race, education, occupational status and unemployment due to the recession were controlled variables and age, financial status and time post job loss were uncontrolled variables. Subjects whose STAI scores were between one standard error below and one standard error above the mean were eliminated to form an average anxiety group and a high anxiety group. A multiple analysis of covariance test was used to examine the relationship between anxiety by group and P and E scores, with age, time post unemployment and financial status as potential covariates. Only the anxiety and E scores were significantly related, indicating that as more E strategies were used, anxiety scores increased. A series of t-tests was performed in order to make comparisons between sample anxiety scores and normed anxiety scores. The overall sample reported anxiety scores significantly higher than those of a normed college freshman group and not significantly different from those of a depressed, hospitalized group. There were no significant differences in anxiety scores between people of different ages or incomes, but anxiety increased as time post job loss increased. These results suggest that people unemployed due to a recession could benefit from help in alleviating their anxiety.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Academic guidance counseling

COinS