Coping with unemployment: Personality, role demands, and time structure

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Abstract

Time structure has been found to be an important coping mechanism for dealing with the negative effects of unemployment on psychological well-being. This study extends the literature by investigating personality (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and proactivity) and role demands (marital status, being the only breadwinner, having children, and household demands) as determinants of time structure during unemployment. In addition, five specific dimensions of time structure were examined: sense of purpose, structured routine, present orientation, effective organization, and persistence. In a sample of 231 Flemish unemployed individuals, we found that sense of purpose and present orientation positively predicted psychological well-being. With respect to personality, openness to experience was negatively related to sense of purpose. Conscientiousness related positively to sense of purpose, structured routine, effective organization, and persistence. Neuroticism related negatively to sense of purpose and present orientation. Proactivity positively predicted structured routine, but was a negative predictor of present orientation and persistence. Regarding role demands, being single and having children were positively related to structured routine. These findings highlight the importance of personality for maintaining time structure during unemployment.

Highlights

► Time structure is better represented by five dimensions than by one global factor. ► Time structure can be used to cope with the negative effects of unemployment. ► Sense of purpose and present orientation predict psychological well-being. ► Personality seems more important than role demands for maintaining time structure. ► Conscientiousness and neuroticism are the key predictors of time structure.

Section snippets

Time structure and psychological well-being during unemployment

Feather and Bond (1983) introduced the construct of time structure, which can be defined as the degree to which individuals perceive their use of time to be structured and purposive (Wanberg et al., 1997). In fact, this construct comprises some of the latent functions of the latent deprivation model of Jahoda (1982), namely: imposing structure, being part of collective and personal goals, and having regular activity (Mudrack, 1999). This implies that time structure is by definition a

Personality and time structure

The degree to which people structure and use their time in a meaningful way can be determined by several factors (Wanberg et al., 1997). For example, individual differences such as personality traits can provoke specific reactions concerning time structure during unemployment. The most prevalent taxonomy of individual differences identifies five broad personality factors (Digman, 1990). Four of these Big Five personality factors seem conceptually most useful for predicting time structure during

Role demands and time structure

With respect to possible situational determinants of time structure, the present study focuses on role demands. In the course of one's life, people often assume new roles, which involve the introduction of new purposes and routines into the organization of daily life (Bond & Feather, 1988). As such, the demands posed by these roles are likely to influence unemployed individuals' level of time structure (Feather and Bond, 1994, McKee-Ryan et al., 2005, Wanberg et al., 1997). Four key role

Personality, role demands, time structure, and well-being

So far, we have argued that personality traits and role demands determine individuals' structured and purposive use of time as a coping resource to maintain their psychological well-being during unemployment. This suggest that time structure, as a coping mechanism, might mediate the relationships of these determinants with psychological well-being. Given that time structure is only one of many coping mechanisms (e.g., social support, financial resources) that unemployed individuals can appeal

Sample

Our sample consisted of unemployed individuals, taking into account two inclusion criteria. First, participants were required to have at least three months of previous full-time work experience, thus excluding students and school leavers. Second, participants had to be unemployed for at least one month to allow the unemployment to affect their time structure.

On the basis of these criteria, our final sample consisted of 231 unemployed persons. About half of the participants was male (52.8%) and

Results

Table 1 shows all means, standard deviations, and correlations. First, all dimensions of time structure (except for structured routine) were positively correlated with psychological well-being. Second, regarding personality, positive correlations were found between openness to experience and persistence, as well as between conscientiousness and sense of purpose, structured routine, effective organization, and persistence. Extraversion related positively to sense of purpose, effective

Main conclusions

Previous research has identified time structure as an important coping mechanism for dealing with the negative effects of unemployment on psychological well-being (McKee-Ryan et al., 2005). The present study contributes to and extends the literature by investigating how individual personality traits and situational role demands relate to distinct dimensions of unemployed individuals' time structure. This study yields several conclusions that enhance our knowledge of time structure during

Conclusion

In conclusion, we found support for time structure as a coping resource that can be used to buffer some of the negative effects of unemployment. Specifically, unemployed individuals with a higher sense of purpose and present orientation experience higher psychological well-being. In addition, maintaining time structure during unemployment seems to be more closely related to personality than to role demands, with conscientiousness and neuroticism as key predictors.

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    This research was supported in part by a Postdoctoral Fellow grant from the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) awarded to the first author. We would like to thank the Flemish Public Employment Service for their help in collecting the data and Connie Wanberg for her valuable comments.

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