Thriving in the face of youth unemployment: The role of personal and social resources

Abstract

Extensive research indicated that unemployment has detrimental impacts upon psychological well-being of young individuals. Nevertheless, psychological well-being of unemployed college graduates remained unexamined in the existing literature. The current study sought to investigate the direct and indirect roles of self, social, and work resources on the mental health of unemployed college graduates (N = 291). The results of path analysis pointed out that only self-esteem, employment hope, and family social support were directly linked with psychological well-being. Additionally, there were indirect paths from work–role centrality, self-efficacy, self-esteem, and job search motivation to psychological well-being via employment hope.