Main description:

Employing both large-scale surveys and in-depth interviews, the authors document the mental health effects on workers caused by the closure of four General Motor plants. They paint a portrait of how the social context in which these workers lived played a critical role in their experiences of unemployment or of keeping their jobs when others around them lost theirs. More than simply a study of unemployment and mental health, this book is also a story of coping and resilience.

Contents:

1. Introduction: Stress and the Life Course During Hard Times. 2. The Study: Sites, Sample, Method and Measures. 3. Unemployment and Re-employment. 4. Feelings: Unemployment and Mental Health. 5. The Structure of Stress: Demographic Characteristics and the Stress Process. 6. A Question of Worth: Financial Circumstances, the Self, and Distress. 7. The Persistence of Stress: Negative Life Events in the Recent and Distant Past. 8. Psychological Resources and Distress. 9. Individual vs. Collective Resources. 10. Conclusions. References.