Does unemployment affect the self-esteem of school-leavers?

Abstract

The self-esteem of school-leavers was studied in a longitudinal design to determine whether being unemployed was as demoralizing for them as it was reported to be for older workers in the 1930s. Global self-esteem in fourth and fifth form students at both public and private schools was measured prior to the end of a school year and again 4 months later when respondents could be categorized as returned to school, employed or unemployed. Though girls had significantly lower self-esteem than boys in the first set of data, there were not significant differences between the within-sex groupings. There was a significant increase in self-esteem over the 4-month period for the employed girls alone. In neither unemployed group, had self-esteem decreased a significant amount in that time.