Consecuencias del desempleo en la salud mental de una muestra de jóvenes angoleños

José Manuel Tomás; Melchor Gutiérrez; Irene Fernández

doi:10.24310/espsiescpsi.v10i1.13192

Authors

José Manuel Tomás Departamento de Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Universidad de Valencia Spain
Melchor Gutiérrez Departamento de Psicología Evolutiva y de la Educación, Universidad de Valencia Spain
Irene Fernández Departamento de Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Universidad de Valencia Spain

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24310/espsiescpsi.v10i1.13192

Keywords:

perceived social support, resilience, coping, mental health, Angola

Abstract

Commonly found effects of unemployment on mental health include a loss of confidence, a higher incidence of depression and a loss of psychosocial resources. Objective: To test the effect of strain-mitigating variables on mental health in a sample of unemployed Angolan youth using a struc-tural model with latent variables. Effects of social support (from parents, friends, and others), resilience, and coping strategies on mental health were tested, while controlling for the effects of being economically self-sufficient. The model was tested on a sample of 283 Angolan youth (age range, 18-30 years). The structural model was estimated using EQS 5.7. The model had an adequate fit to the data. The results suggest that social support, resilience, and coping strategies have an alleviating effect on the negative consequences of unemployment on mental health. The results indicate the need to foster parental support and the need for social institutions to encourage the active search for employment. We discuss the results in the light of previous evidence and highlight the limitations related to the cross-sectional nature of the study and incidental sampling.

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