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In this study, an effort has been made to investigate the role of unemployment in the development of the physical distress in youth. A sample of 400 subjects (200 males and 200 females) was drawn from Solan district of Himachal Pradesh. Comparison was done between unemployed and employed youth in both the gender groups i.e., males and females. A 2 x 2 ANOVA has yielded significant results that is, unemployed youth has significantly perceived greater psychological distress profiles (inadequacy, depression, anxiety, sensitivity, anger, tension) than employed people. Findings from this study suggest that unemployment has an adverse effect on psychological function, with the unemployed becoming more anxious, depressed and concerned with bodily symptoms. Unemployment leads to frustration, aggression, regression and finally to resignation from life.
Keywords: psychological distress, unemployment & gender
The relationship between unemployment and poor health has been well documented (Dean & Wilson, 2009); Marmot & Wilkinson, 2006); McKee-Ryan, Song, Wanberg, Kinicki (2005; Paul, Geithner & Moser, 2009), Wilson & Walker, 1993). The unemployed tend to have higher levels of impaired mental health including depression, anxiety, and stress, as well as higher levels of mental health hospital admissions, chronic disease (cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and musculoskeletal disorders), and premature mortality (Dean & Wilson, 2009; Paul, Geithner & Moser, 2009; Wilson & Walker, 1993; Arber & LaHelma, 1993; Bartley, 1994; Dooley, Catalano & Hough, 1992; Hammarström , 1994; Montgomery, Cook, Bartley & Wadsworth, 1999; O'Campo, Eaton & Muntaner, 2004). Some longitudinal studies have shown that higher levels of depression and unemployment are not just correlated, but that higher levels of depression are a result of unemployment (Montgomery, Cook, Bartley, & Wadsworth, 1999; Bolton &Oatley, 1987; Frese & Mohr, 1987). Other prospective studies have found that poor mental health contributes to unemployment (Butterworth, Leach, Pirkis, & Kelaher, 1993). A study by Montgomery, Cook, Bartley, and Wadsworth, 1999), showed that subjects who had recently become unemployed had an adjusted relative risk of 2.10 for depression and anxiety compared to those who had not recently become unemployed. When participants with preexisting depression were excluded from the study, those who had greater than thirty-seven months of accumulated unemployment were two times more apt to be depressed or anxious than were the employed Additionally, unemployment is associated with unhealthy...