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Abstract

Studies have shown that the experiences and consequences of unemployment can affect people differently depending on, for example, age and gender. The purpose of the present study was to describe young Finnish men’s experiences of being unemployed as well as how their experiences of health emerged. Fifteen young unemployed Finnish men in the age range 18 to 27 years were interviewed face to face. Purposive sampling was used to increase the variation among informants. The interview texts were analyzed using both manifest and latent qualitative content analysis. The present results showed that the young men were strongly negatively affected by being unemployed. They described how they had slowly lost their foothold. They also described feelings of shame and guilt as well as a flight from reality. The present results show that even young men who have only experienced shorter periods of unemployment, in this study periods between 2 and 6 months, are negatively affected, for example, with regard to their identity and emotional life. Further research is needed to describe and elucidate in more detail the effects of unemployment on men of different ages and living in different contexts.

Keywords

young men unemployment experiences qualitative approach health

Introduction

Regarding youth unemployment in Europe, Spain and Greece top the statistics within the European Union, Spain having 54.7% youth unemployment and Greece 46.6%. Sweden and Finland top the Nordic statistics in youth unemployment, Sweden having 23.3% youth unemployment and Finland 18.8%. Here, the age range for defining youth is 15 to 24 years (Ekonomifakta, 2013).

A number of studies (Backhans & Hemmingsson, 2012; Bambra & Eikemo, 2009; Davalos & French, 2011; Dorling, 2009; Gagin & Shinan-Altman, 2012; Giatti, Barreto, & César, 2010; Hammarstrom, 1994; Hammarstrom & Janlert, 2002; Hammarstrom, Janlert, & Theorell, 1988; Luo, Qu, Rockett, & Zhang, 2010) have shown that unemployment has a negative impact on perceived health in general. One Swedish and one American study have also revealed a correlation between unemployment and early death (Lundin, Lundberg, Hallsten, Ottosson, & Hemmingsson, 2010; Roelfs, Shor, Davidson, & Schwartz, 2011). There are different hypotheses concerning how unemployment and health may be correlated with each other. According to Gonäs, Hallsten, and Spånt (2006), the correlation between unemployment and ill health can be explained in three ways:

Unemployment per se leads to ill health, the “unemployment hypothesis.”

Ill health, for example, physical or mental illness, leads to unemployment, the “selection hypothesis.”

Unemployment leads to ill health and ill health leads to unemployment, the “bi-directional hypothesis.”

Moreover, Swedish, British, and American research are indicating that unemployment can lead to destructive health behavior, such as increased alcohol consumption, smoking, and use of other drugs (Eliason & Storrie, 2009; Hammarstrom, 1994; Janlert, 1997; Montgomery, Cook, Bartley, & Wadsworth, 1998; Mossakowski, 2008; Reine, Novo, & Hammarström, 2004; Virtanen, Janlert, & Hammarstrom, 2013). A Swedish study investigating the association between unemployment and alcohol consumption only showed increased alcohol consumption in unemployed men (Reine, Novo, & Hammarström, 2013).

As stated, unemployment is correlated in different ways with health, but studies from Spain, Sweden, Israel, China, and the United States have shown that the experiences and consequences of unemployment can affect people differently depending on, for example, gender and age (Artazcoz, Benach, Borrell, & Cortès, 2004; Backhans & Hemmingsson, 2012; Gagin & Shinan-Altman, 2012; Luo et al., 2010; Malat & Timberlake, 2013; Reine et al., 2004).

Based on international rates of unemployment among younger men and the possible consequences on health, the purpose of this study is to describe young Finnish men’s experiences of being unemployed as well as how their experiences of health emerged.

Differences Between Men and Women

A number of studies, both more recent and older, have shown that men in the Western world are more exposed to the negative effects of unemployment than women are, including various kinds of ill health, for example, mental distress, and greater stigmatization. Men are more likely than women to believe that employed individuals do not respect the unemployed (Backhans & Hemmingsson, 2012; Kulik, 2000a; McFadyen, 1995; Shamir, 1985). Some studies have attempted to explain this by arguing that unemployed women have more opportunities to find alternative jobs and that women can generally expect to receive greater financial support from their husbands/partners, who often earn more than the women do (Leana & Feldman, 1991; Shamir, 1985). However, one Israeli study (Kulik, 2000a) revealed that unemployed women reported poorer health than unemployed men did. McKee-Ryan, Song, Wanberg, & Kinicki (2005) also reported that unemployed women showed poorer mental health than unemployed men did. Moreover, Bambra and Eikemo (2009) noted that the negative health effect of unemployment in Europe was particularly strong for women, especially within the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian welfare state regimes. Malmberg-Heimonen and Julkunen (2002) noted that women in Finland and Sweden experienced unemployment more negatively than men did.

One large-scale Finnish study (Böckerman & Ilmakunnas, 2009) reported that unemployment per se had no significant effect on the self-rated health of either men or women. One possible explanation for this result could be, in accordance with Sullivan and von Wachter (2009), that Finland as a nation provides more generous support to the unemployed. For example, unemployed individuals in Finland have access to health and medical care, while unemployed individuals in, for example, the United States often lose their health insurance on becoming unemployed. Weckström (2012), on the other hand, suggested that unemployed Finnish men gave slightly lower ratings of their perceived health than unemployed Finnish women did. Paul and Moser (2009) wrote that, despite the fact that the gender dimension is debated on occasion and is not yet fully understood, we should generally expect greater negative effects of unemployment among men than among women. Strandh Hammarström, Nilsson, Nordenmark, and Russel (2012) claimed that context has a major influence on the relationship between unemployment, gender, and mental health; in this study, the context is young Finnish men living in a small town with approximately 70,000 inhabitants.

Differences in Age

There are also different hypotheses concerning how the negative effects of unemployment and age are correlated with each other. One general assumption, confirmed in a number of studies, is that older persons (50-65 years) experience more negative effects from unemployment than younger persons do (Alavinia & Burdorf, 2008; P. R. Jackson & Warr, 1984; Kulik, 2000b; Leahy & Lin, 1992). P. R. Jackson and Warr (1984) claimed in a British study that persons of middle age (36-45) experienced more negative effects from unemployment than do both younger and older persons do. On the other hand, McKee-Ryan et al. (2005) suggested that there are no clear patterns in the relationships between age, experienced negative effects, and unemployment.

According to Axelsson and Ejlertsson (2002), unemployment per se creates unequal health conditions in young people in that it often leads to behavior that is detrimental to health. Hammarström and Janlert (2002) demonstrated in a Swedish study that health problems, such as smoking, restlessness, and worries of the young unemployed usually contribute to lasting health problems in adulthood. One Swedish study (Axelsson, Andersson, Edén, & Ejlertsson, 2007) reported that unemployment among young people is generally a negative experience, although some young people found that they felt better after becoming unemployed. An older Scottish study (Fryer, 1997) argued that although there are studies reporting that unemployment among young people is less harmful to their health compared with the older unemployed, there is a continuing need to highlight the effects of unemployment on young people owing to the vulnerability of the younger generation. The vulnerability is the circumstance that the risk of becoming unemployed is traditionally greater for younger than for older people. Limb (2011) claimed that the high rate of unemployment among young people in the European Union should be seen as a warning sign and a public health emergency.

Health in a Male Perspective

Meyer (2003) suggested in an American study that the subject of men’s health is frequently neglected in public health discussions. Meyer also noted that this neglect leads to pain, suffering, and increased health care costs for men. According to Courtenay (2000), also an American study, gender should be seen as a social and dynamic structure, and masculinity and health are constructed within a relational context. Courtenay also claimed that ill-health behaviors, including increased alcohol consumption, smoking, and risk-taking, could be connected to manhood and masculinity. Furthermore, Majors and Billson (1992) proposed that what they call “compulsive masculinity,” for example, school failure, school disruption, and gang behavior, can lead to alcohol abuse.

To sum up, earlier research has focused on differences in gender and age when studying the correlation between unemployment and health. But as Reine et al. (2013) stated, understanding the relationships between unemployment, health, and gender requires more research; Luo et al. (2010) also noted that there is still a lack of research on unemployment effects in relation to age.

Moreover, Gonäs et al. (2006) claimed that general changes in the labor market, employment, and research methodology mean that early research results may be less valid today and that research in this area should be constantly updated. Concerning the methodological issues; Giatti et al. (2010) suggested that quantitative studies are limited when it comes to capturing the different nuances associated with individuals and their specific contexts. According to Meyer (2003), the subject of men’s health in general is frequently neglected in public health discussions.

Summary and Purpose of This Study

Based on the above literature review, we can conclude that there is a need to increase our knowledge about young unemployed men by, for example, shifting the research focus to unemployment experiences and how these experiences can adversely affect health. This shift in focus could include, among other things, a qualitative approach.

The purpose of the present study was to describe young Finnish men’s experiences of being unemployed as well as how their experiences of health emerged. Here, being unemployed means having been without paid employment between 2 and 6 months.

Method

Design

The present study has a descriptive design and takes a qualitative approach. To gain a deeper understanding of young Finish men’s experiences of being unemployed, a qualitative study was deemed to be most appropriate because such an approach tends to be more holistic and aims at an understanding of the whole (Polit & Beck 2012).

Study Sample

The participants were 15 young unemployed Finnish men in the age range 18 to 27 years who were linked to an unemployment center in a Finnish city. Narratives were selected for the data collection, while the purpose was to try to understand young Finish men’s experiences of unemployment and how their experiences of health emerged. The focus of the narratives is on the content of the stories; all 15 men narrated different stories, which provided rich descriptions and variation in relation to the phenomena. Purposive sampling was also used to increase the variation among the informants in terms of residence (rural areas vs. urban), age (within the age interval), previous education, work experience, unemployment, and ethnicity. Purposive sampling is a nonprobability sampling method meaning that the researcher selects participants based on judgment about which ones will be most informative (Polit & Beck, 2012).

Data Collection

Prior to carrying out the interviews, the authors conducted a literature review to gain a better understanding of the phenomenon of unemployment. Two pilot interviews with two young men were conducted by the first author. Based on the information derived from the pilot interviews, the interview protocol was formulated. The interview protocol consisted of narrative descriptions including structured, semistructured, and thematic open-ended questions with a focus on open-ended questions. The qualitative interviews were carried out by the first author in an unemployment center in Finland that the 15 male participants were familiar with, the aim being to create a secure atmosphere that would allow them to narrate freely about their experiences and feelings (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009). The interview began by collecting background data, for example, age, own education, parents’ education, and living conditions. The informants were then asked to narrate about their experiences and feelings about, for example, their lives in general and being unemployed. Examples of questions made to encourage narration are “Please tell me about what work means to you,” “Please tell me about how it felt to be unemployed,” and “Please tell me about your health.” Follow-up questions, so-called probes, were also used to encourage richer narratives. Examples of probes are “What do you mean?” “How did you feel when you heard that?” “How did you feel then?” and “What happened then?” All interviews were concluded with the question: “Is there anything else you would like to add or ask about before we stop?” The interviews were recorded and later transcribed verbatim (Polit & Beck, 2012). (The interviews lasted between 25 and 55 minutes.) The variation in interview duration (from 25 to 55 minutes) may be explained by the men’s different personalities. Some of them felt comfortable and found it easy to narrate freely, while others were shy and not used to narrating spontaneously about themselves. Despite these differences, the transcribed text revealed the richness and depth of the interview content.

Data Analysis

The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis where both verbal and written communication is systematically analyzed (Krippendorff, 2004). The interview text was analyzed using both manifest and latent qualitative content analysis (Graneheim & Lundman, 2004). This method seemed to be appropriate for analyzing the young men’s narratives, from which both descriptive and interpretative meaning emerged. The analysis began with the first author listening to the recordings and reading the text several times in order to get a sense of the material as a whole. The fourth author listened to two interviews and read through five interviews. The first author then divided the interview text into meaning units based on words and sentences related to the study aim. The meaning units were then condensed to clarify the essence of the text. The condensed text was then abstracted, labeled with codes, and sorted into categories based on similarities and differences in content after a number of regroupings. In the next step, the underlying meaning of the categories was interpreted and presented in three themes. The analysis was characterized by a dynamic process involving alternation between the parts and the whole. Discussion and revision of the different steps in the analysis process, the meaning units, the categories, and the themes were carried out jointly by the first and last author until consensus was reached (Graneheim & Lundman, 2004).

Ethical Considerations

The project was approved by the research ethics council at Åbo Akademi on April 27, 2011. The study was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration (Forskningsetiska delegationen, 2009).

The participants were informed, orally and in writing, about the purpose of the study. They were also assured confidentiality and informed that participation in the study was strictly voluntary and could be terminated at any time without explanation. Both prior to and during the interviews, the interviewer (the first author) kept in mind that questions about general well-being and life conditions in relation to the informants’ unemployed status could lead to thoughts that the young men might need to deal with. A plan of action for managing such possible situations was developed. The action plan included among other things phone numbers and addresses to professional counselors.

Results

The analysis and interpretation first resulted in a number of categories that were based on the various meaning units in the empirical material. In the further analysis and interpretation process, three themes emerged. The categories and themes are presented in Table 1.

Table 1.

Categories and Themes.

Categories	Themes
Poor time structure	Slowly losing one’s foothold
Standing on the sidelines	A feeling of shame and guilt
Not being anybody
Feeling worried
Lost contact with reality	Flight from reality
Destructive behavior	Flight from reality

Slowly Losing One’s foothold

The young men described how their lives and status as unemployed had slowly but surely became more vague and “gloomy.” They found it increasingly difficult to achieve any sort of order and structure in their lives. The theme consists of one category: Poor time structure.

Poor Time Structure

The young men reported how their lives were becoming more and more unstructured and, as a consequence, days and nights were blurred together. They had no time schedule to keep. This often resulted in the young men more or less turning the days and nights around because they felt there was no reason to get up in the morning when no one was expecting them. Not only did they have no work to go to but also no classes to come to on time. One young man stated: “If you don’t have any work then it messes up your sense of day and night” (Interview 3). The informants talked about long waking nights that they often spent watching TV, playing computer games, or playing online poker. According to the informants, their awake time during the days could also involve TV viewing and time in front of the computer: “I wake up maybe between noon and 4 p.m. and then go to bed between 3 and 5 in the morning” (Interview 8).

A Feeling of Shame and Guilt

In this theme, the young men described how they often had feelings of shame and guilt over, as they put it, “not doing my bit,” that is, not being involved and contributing to the public welfare but rather being more of a burden on society. This theme consists of three categories: Standing on the sidelines, Not being anybody, and Feeling worried.

Standing on the Sidelines

On several occasions, the young men talked about their experiences of “feeling excluded.” Not participating in regular life made them feel they were standing on the sidelines of society. The informants described rarely or never being able to afford anything extra; their money was hardly enough for the bare necessities and that also made them feel sidelined: “Being unemployed is not comfortable” (Interview 1).

Among the questions that they considered were “What will happen to me and my family if I remain on the sidelines of society for a long time?” (Interview 13). Another young man stated, “Will I always be unemployed?” (Interview 9). Another participant wondered, “Will I ever get a job?” (Interview 11). One man asked, “Will I ever be something?” and continued “Not having a job drains your spirits and energy” (Interview 5).

Not Being Anybody

The informants also described a feeling of not being anybody when you are unemployed. For many, having a job was the only thing that counted: “Work is something that forms your identity, that’s how it is for me, I grew up in an environment where you’re supposed to work” (Interview 7).

The young men described the pressure and the stress associated with not having become something, not having made a career for themselves: “It’s all this pressure that you have to be somebody, have a career, fabulous plans for your life, it’s really hard” (Interview 14).

Others described themselves as hopeless cases and as not being good enough: “I feel like a parasite on society” (Interview 6). Here the young men talked about and compared themselves with siblings, acquaintances, and friends who, in their eyes, have had more luck with their studies, made careers, had more or less good jobs, and been more successful. Several wished they had better self-esteem: “Not having a job makes you feel like a failure” (Interview 9).

One young man who had recently moved to Finland described in detail how he often got the impression that employers seemed clearly interested in contacts via letter and phone, but that they lost interest when they realized he came from another country: “Sometimes it was really strong, you could tell how it would go immediately. This is not going anywhere, because of my skin color, that I’m sure of” (Interview 11).

Feeling Worried

One recurring topic was money. Here the men expressed concern over their financial situation. They also talked about worrying about their parents’ money problems, and were concerned that their parents would be unemployed. “I worry about the economy, if things will get really bad for my mom or me” (Interview 5). Many also described feeling fearful and worried about the general financial crisis. Just the fact that newspapers and television frequently mentioned financial crises and related problems made many feel uneasy and concerned; it also reminded them that they were not contributing anything at all. “All the talk about the financial crisis, it makes me worry” (Interview 8).

Flight From Reality

In this theme, the young men talked about fleeing from reality. Such a flight could take different forms, and escape was often linked to some sort of harmful or destructive behavior. This main theme consists of two categories: Lost contact with reality and Destructive behavior.

Lost Contact With Reality

In the informants’ narratives, it emerged that they often felt that their life was just flowing along in a growing muddle and that they were losing contact with reality more and more. It was typically the case that no one was asking about or waiting for them or, for that matter, that no one was worried if they had not been in contact during a day. The informants here described a feeling of boredom. On a typical day nothing in particular happened. This could lead to a feeling of emptiness and meaninglessness, which could result in them feeling more or less resigned. The sense of resignation could manifest itself in just sitting or lying on the couch during their awake time without doing anything useful: “Sitting at home and up all night while all my friends and acquaintances are working” (Interview 2).

This inactivity also meant that everyday activities were pushed aside. They no longer had the energy, strength, or desire to perform everyday tasks such as cooking, shopping, cleaning, or making the bed. A daily walk could also be difficult: “When you’ve been sitting around all day and have not gotten anything done” (Interview 4).

According to the informants, life had become more and more vague, and they reported gradually entering into another existence they described as more or less gloomy. This obscure existence lacked order and structure, which could result in a feeling of just wandering around without a goal and with nowhere to go: “You don’t know where you’re going, you’re just wandering around” (Interview 12).

Destructive Behavior

The young men discussed how they began to behave more and more destructively after becoming unemployed. For example, they consumed large amounts of alcohol several times per week: “I started drinking more and more alcohol when I didn’t have anything to do during the day” (Interview 10).

Usually they sat at home with each other and drank; only in exceptional cases did they talk about going out to a bar or pub to drink. It often began with meeting friends of the same age who were also unemployed in the late afternoon to play games or watch TV. One or several of them had beer or other alcoholic beverages and they started drinking. The young men often said it did not matter if they drank or how much they drank because they did not need to wake up and go to a job or to school the next day. Being drunk sometimes also eased their concerns, although some also talked about the nausea and worry associated with too much drinking: “It happens quite often that I drink so much I vomit and have trouble remembering things” (Interview 1).

Several of the men also reported smoking more in conjunction with drinking alcohol than they normally did. Another topic falling under this theme was lack of physical activity. “I lie on the couch every day” (Interview 13).

Many reported not doing anything at all other than sleeping, watching TV and partying with friends, while clearly expressing that they would like to manage their physical health better, for example by training and exercising: “I don’t do anything during the day, it doesn’t feel good. I should try to get some exercise” (Interview 15).

Discussion

The results of the present study show that the young men experienced their unemployed status in a strikingly negative manner. Regarding the first theme slowly losing one’s foothold along with its category poor time structure, this was something the young men expressed quite clearly. One quote in support of this theme is the following: “If you don’t have any work then it messes up your sense of day and night.” This theme would seem to be in very good accordance with Maria Jahoda’s deprivation theory, which proposes that employment provides certain benefits, such as time structure (Jahoda, 1981, 1982, 1987).

Jahoda (1982) also argued that the most important of the latent benefits was time structure and that loss of that particular benefit was experienced as a heavy psychological burden. Other authors have also reported that unemployed people’s time is less structured than that of the employed (T. Jackson, 1999; Wanberg, Griffiths, & Gavin, 1997). In this context, one might think that at least some of the informants in the present study should have mentioned a few benefits of being unemployed. Radetzki (1996) claimed, for example, that the majority of people who work do so only to support themselves. The time one spends at work could be devoted to, for example, sleeping in the morning, hanging out with friends and relatives, going shopping or engaging in a hobby. A recent study from Australia (Anaf, Baum, Newman, Ziersch, & Jolley, 2013) also noted that at least a few informants who had become unemployed saw it as something positive. It should be noted that none of the narrated stories in the present study was in line with Radetzki’s (1996) opinion that unemployed people could use the time for other more pleasurable activities or with Anaf et al.’s (2013) finding that some, albeit a minority, felt at ease with being unemployed. In this regard, it might be considered somewhat surprising that Jahoda’s theory of time structure, which was formulated a number of years ago, is so highly applicable to the young Finnish unemployed men interviewed here.

The theme feeling of shame and guilt and the category destructive behavior can both be linked to Gonäs et al.’s (2006) “unemployment hypothesis,” that is, the notion that unemployment leads to ill health. In this context, it may be relevant to note that none of the relatively young informants reported any kind of ill health prior to the period of unemployment, which also indicates that the “selective hypothesis” (Gonäs et al., 2006), that is, the notion that the illness leads to unemployment, does not seem to apply to these young men. Some of the informants’ statements are reasonably well in line with the “bidirectional hypothesis,” that is, the notion that unemployment leads to ill health and that ill health leads to more unemployment. One example of such a statement is the following:

I felt really stressed, the whole situation, work, my personal economy and all those kinds of things while I was really trying, struggling to find work. . . . I didn’t really have the motivation you need, not enough energy.

A number of the young unemployed men expressed feelings of shame and guilt. This finding is supported by previous research reporting that, in the Western world, men are exposed to more negative aspects of unemployment than are unemployed women (Backhans & Hemmingsson, 2012; Kulik, 2000a; McFadyen, 1995; Shamir, 1985). Somewhat surprising in this context is perhaps the finding that so many of the informants, who were between the ages of 18 and 27, reported feeling bad about being unemployed. Previous studies have indicated that young people suffer less from unemployment than middle-aged and older people do (Axelsson et al., 2007; Fryer, 1997; P. R. Jackson & Warr, 1984). One question that could be posed is whether older people would express even stronger negative feelings. The fact remains that every one of the young male informants in the present study clearly reported how unemployment had caused feelings of shame, guilt, and ill health. This finding is in good accordance with previous research reporting that the effects of unemployment among young people needs to be highlighted and that youth unemployment in itself should serve as a warning signal (Axelsson et al., 2007; Fryer, 1997; Limb, 2011).

Worrying about, for example, their financial situation and “pulling one’s own weight” was also reported by a number of informants and classified under the theme a feeling of shame and guilt. One partial explanation for this may be that men still believe they have a greater responsibility for “being the breadwinner,” and some research has tried to explain this by arguing that unemployed women can generally expect greater financial support from their husbands/partners (Leana & Feldman, 1991; Shamir, 1985). Other research (Bambra & Eikemo, 2009) suggests that the social safety net, including unemployment benefits, also plays a role in unemployed persons’ perceived health.

The theme Flight from reality was also expressed on a number of occasions. Several informants reported having clearly increased their alcohol intake as a consequence of unemployment. Drinking alcohol also often led to more smoking than usual. These findings correspond well with previous research results indicating that unemployment led to, among other things, increased alcohol consumption (Eliason & Storrie, 2009; Hammarstrom, 1994; Janlert, 1997; Montgomery et al., 1998; Mossakowski, 2008; Reine et al., 2004; Virtanen et al., 2013). Paljärvi, Suominen, Car, and Koskenvuo (2013) reported that current unemployment among Finnish men was associated with significantly higher odds of hazardous alcohol intake.

It should be noted that alcohol was the most frequently mentioned intoxicating substance. Yet alcohol consumption among young men in general is relatively high (Park & Breland, 2007). Nonetheless, a number of participants in the present study clearly reported having increased their alcohol intake in direct connection with their period of unemployment.

The theme Flight from reality and the category Destructive behavior can be linked to the study by Courtenay (2000), who reported that ill-health behaviors, including increased alcohol consumption, could be connected to manhood and masculinity. These results could also be connected to the findings of Majors and Billson (1992), who claimed that compulsive masculinity can lead to alcohol abuse. This destructive behavior described by the young Finnish unemployed men was probably reinforced by the exclusion resulting from unemployment. Compulsive masculinity was not expressed to any great extent in the present study; instead the young Finnish men often expressed feelings of guilt and shame. During the interviews, some of the young Finnish men also became very emotional when narrating about their situation. The connection between compulsive masculinity and unemployment could also be an area of future research.

Methodological Considerations

All interviews were conducted, recorded, and transcribed verbatim by the first author. The trustworthiness of the researcher’s immediate understanding was tested in the dialogue between the researcher and the informants, asking questions during the interviews such as: “Do you mean that . . . ?” or “Have I understood you correctly?”

To strengthen the study’s credibility, the male informants were selected so as to achieve variation in age (within the age interval), previous education, residence (rural areas vs. urban), previous education, work experience, and ethnicity. Direct quotations were presented in the results section to increase the study’s credibility (Polit & Beck, 2012). To improve dependability during the analysis process, the authors went back to the original text several times to verify that no content was missing. To ensure transferability, the authors tried to describe and present the data collection and data analysis as clearly as possible.

The results were compared and discussed by all authors, also in an attempt to strengthen the study’s trustworthiness.

Limitations

One limitation of the present study was the small sample selected from a small part of Finland. Because of this limitation, the findings may not be generalizable to a larger population. Another limitation is that qualitative interviews depend, among other things, on the interaction between the interviewer and the participant. To minimize this limitation, the interviews were conducted in an environment familiar to the participants.

Conclusion

The present results showed that the young Finnish men were strongly negatively affected by being unemployed. Among other things, unemployment led to feelings of being excluded from society and of shame, guilt, and worry. Unemployment also seems to be a risk factor for increased bad habits and unhealthy behavior among young men, for example, increased alcohol consumption.

The present findings indicate that even young men experiencing shorter periods of unemployment seem to be negatively affected. Unemployment per se seemed to have negatively affected the young men’s lifestyle, emotional life, self-esteem, and identity as well as to have caused unhealthy behavior, all of which may in turn influence how their adult lives develop, for example, it might be a trigger for developing a depression. The findings suggest that there are both good socioeconomic and health-related reasons for trying to reduce and counteract unemployment among young men. Further research is needed to describe and elucidate in more detail the effects of unemployment on both men and women of different ages and living in different contexts. Further resources and research are also needed to design, describe, and evaluate interventions and action plans intended to improve young unemployed men’s health and well-being and alleviate their unemployment-related problems.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Unemployment and Health

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Differences Between Men and Women

Differences in Age

Health in a Male Perspective

Summary and Purpose of This Study

Method

Design

Study Sample

Data Collection

Data Analysis

Ethical Considerations

Results

Slowly Losing One’s foothold

Poor Time Structure

A Feeling of Shame and Guilt

Standing on the Sidelines

Not Being Anybody

Feeling Worried

Flight From Reality

Lost Contact With Reality

Destructive Behavior

Discussion

Methodological Considerations

Limitations

Conclusion

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

Funding

References