The perceived impact of unemployment on psychological well-being among unemployed young people in Worcester

Abstract

Unemployment among young, less-educated coloured individuals is a major problem in the community of Worcester in the Western Cape. The purpose of the research study is to gain in-depth insight into the impact of unemployment on psychological well-being among young coloured people in Worcester. The study is based on a qualitative approach by conducting semi-structured interviews with twelve unemployed, coloured persons in Worcester. The ages of the participants ranged from 18 to 30 years, with the median age of 20.33 years. Purposive sampling and snowball techniques were used to select these unemployed young persons. Two instruments, a demographic questionnaire and a semi-structured interview guide, were used to gather data on the research participants. The transcribed data were analysed by means of content thematic analysis and aided by thematic network analyses. The findings of the study suggest that unemployed participants experience negative feelings daily as a result of their unemployment. Some participants blamed themselves for previous mistakes that they had made, they feel a sense of failure to provide for their children's needs as parents, they expressed feelings of guilt or shame, and compared themselves with employed peers, which is indicative of low self-esteem. Furthermore, unemployment has a financial impact on participants which includes financial dependency on others, unemployment serving as a barrier to being able to fulfil future plans and aspirations as well as unemployment having an effect on the social life of participants in that participants appear to withdraw from social interaction and isolate themselves. For some participants there was a loss of a sense of purpose experiencing difficulties in structuring their time and generally spent their time with passive and purposeless activities. Despite being unemployed, certain other participants seek a sense of purpose and try to spend their time engaging in menial tasks or social activities. Participants expressed an overall positive attitude towards employment which includes regarding work as being very important as well as remaining optimistic about their chances of finding a job. Coping with unemployment daily emerged as one of the struggles experienced by the participants in the study. The process of coping with unemployment daily includes utilising a variety of coping strategies to manage their unemployment as well as to manage negative feelings that emerge from being unemployed. The coping strategies indicated by the participants include listening to music, sleeping, reading the Bible, and talking to their friends or family members. Participants also revealed that they needed and received two types of social support from family and friends to help them cope with their unemployment predicament; including a need for emotional support and a need for instrumental support. Participants in the study experienced judgment by community and family members daily because of their unemployed status which includes stigmatising comments. These comments are internalised by participants which may exert a negative impact on their psychological well-being. Limitations of the study includes, participants could have answered the questions of the semi-structured guide in a socially desirable manner as well as the audio-recorded interviews were transcribed into Afrikaans and translated into English and as such, some of the meaning of what the participants had said could have been lost in the translation process. Recommendations for further research includes exploring whether perceived support have a greater beneficial effect on the psychological well-being of unemployed individuals than received support, as well as the role such types of support play in coping with unemployment.