Graduate employment status and health: a longitudinal analysis of the transition from student

Abstract

The prevalence of unemployment and underemployment was explored longitudinally in 248 recent graduates (73 males and 175 females) over an 18-24 month transition from final year student to 9-12 months post-graduation. Over this period changes in levels of psychological distress, health behaviours, social support, optimism and achievement motivation were measured. Results show that both unemployment and underemployment have deleterious effects on psychological and physical health, social support, optimism and achievement motivation.

Heaven knows I'm miserable now: overeducation and reduced life satisfaction

“…Some studies, largely from within psychology, do not control for income and thus present an unconditional correlation for the impact of education (and overeducation) on non-monetary outcomes. An example of this is Cassidy and Wright (2008), who look at graduate employment status and its association with psychological well-being (among other factors). They use different measures of health, including the GHQ-12 scores, popular as a proxy for happiness in the economic literature.…”

History of Unemployment Predicts Future Elevations in C-Reactive Protein among Male Participants in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study

“…Recent graduates, for example, may have been working at jobs that did not match their postgraduation expectations. Being employed in a position that is not relevant to one's career plans has been associated with greater psychological distress and worse health behaviors among recent college graduates [41].…”

Programme recruitment and evaluation: the effect of an employability enhancement programme on the general self-efficacy levels of unemployed graduates

“…Such negative effects consist of elevated levels of depression (Feather and O'Brien, 1986), greater psychological distress (Henwood and Miles, 1987), lower self-esteem and confidence (Wanberg, Watt and Rumsey, 1996;Goldsmith, Veum, and Darity William, 1997) and poorer psychological well-being (McKee-Ryan, Song, Wanberg, Kinicki, 2005). Kaufman (1982), Feather and Bond (1983) and Cassidy and Wright (2008) have shown that unemployed graduates are equally susceptible to such negative impacts.…”