Effects of Economic Pressure among Unemployed Heads of Households : An Empirical Analysis of Moderating Effects by Family Support

실직 가구주 가정의 경제적 부담감이 가구주의 심리상태에 미치는 영향 : 가족 지지의 완충효과에 관한 실증적 분석

Since 1998 when economic assistance from IMF started, the empirical research on the effects of unemployment and drastic income loss on psychological functioning among the unemployed as well as their family members has increased. These studies have found that unemployment and drastic income loss following unemployment have significant negative influence on the psychological outcomes such as anxiety and depression of the unemployed and their family members. Studies have also focused on the role of social support in this process, and reported that depending on the levels of received social support, unemployment and income loss have differential effects on the psychological aspects of the unemployed. However, these studies have several weaknesses. First, most of the related studies employed the data which were collected from limited regions of the country, which imposes limitations on the scope of the generalizability of research findings. Second, the main independent variables used in these studies were mainly unemployment or income loss, which ignore the psychological evaluation by the employed of their family financial situations. Third, in analyzing the moderating effects of social support, most studies have focused mainly on showing the existence of moderating effects by social support. Consequently, the nature and role of social support remained unanalyzed and left to speculations. The purpose, of this study is to examine the effects of economic pressure experienced by family heads who were unemployed and to analyze the moderating role of social support based on a nationally representative sample. The findings showed that economic pressure has negative influence on anxiety and depressive feelings among the unemployed, and that the effect of economic pressure on depressive feelings were substantially higher among those who have received lower levels of social support from family members than that among those with higher levels of family support.