What will happen when employees are terminated from their job?
A postgraduate student at the Department of Psychology, IIUM, Nurul Izzati Asyikin Zulkifly, has conducted an indigenous research to understand this phenomenon among Malaysian employees. Involuntary job loss was found to be a stressful life event that increases individuals’ psychological distress and detrimental to their psychological health.
Previous studies on individuals experiencing job loss reported negative outcomes on individuals’ health, both physical and psychological. These include depression, anxiety, and physical ailments such as a headache and stomach ache (McKee-Ryan, Kinicki, Song & Wanberg, 2005). Individuals who were unemployed after being terminated are also more prone to suffer psychological problems than employed individuals. The proportion of unemployed individuals who were clinically distressed is twice as many as the employed sample (Karren, 2012). In a more serious situation, some committed suicide (Chang, Gunnel, Sterne, Lu & Cheng, 2009). The rate of suicide is found increasing during the economic crisis in the East such as Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea (Chang, Gunnel, Sterne, Lu & Cheng, 2009) and the West like England and United States (Cooper, et al., 2014). This is due to the unbearable stress (Browning & Heinesen, 2012) and the feeling of hopelessness (Haw, Hawton, Gunnel & Platt, 2015).
Both stress appraisal and financial strain as important determinants of psychological distress among the retrenched (Kessler et al., 1994; Price, Choi & Vinokur, 2002; McKee-Ryan, Kinicki, Song & Wanberg, 2005). However, not many studies have investigated both factors concurrently (Adams, Meyers & Beidas, 2016). Hence, this study looks at both stress appraisal and financial strain to fill in the gap in the literature. Despite the negative impacts of job loss on mental health, when individuals are exposed to stressful job loss and often reported a detriment in psychological health - i.e., high psychological distress - the outcomes may not necessarily be negative. Some individuals who were laid off were also able to maintain their level of psychological health and reported lower psychological distress (Northwest Public Health Observatory, 2009). However, despite the adverse impacts of involuntary job loss, some individuals were able to maintain their distress at a lower level. Some of the findings uncover the role of resilience in perceiving the stressor (Meichenbaum, 2011; Juster & Marin, 2013).
Resilience is a protective factor for individuals when encountering stressful life events. It is a positive concept referring to the ability to thrive and survive despite being exposed to difficulties, extreme stress, trauma and adversity (Meichenbaum, 2011; Juster & Marin, 2013). In other words, it portrays the ability of an individual to adapt and manage stressful events in life. This is further elaborated by Rutter (2012) that resilience is observed when some individuals have a better outcome than others who experienced a comparable level of adversity. Several past studies found and evidenced the emergence of resilience. For instance, Bleuer (1972) who studied children of mothers with schizophrenia found that the children’s well-being ‘were better off’ than expected (in Juster & Marin, 2013). Besides, another famous study by Werner in 1955 on children living in adverse social and emotional environment in Kauai, Hawaii, revealed that one-third of the children ‘get by quite well’ (in Juster & Marin, 2013). In a more recent study, resilience was found to form a strong association with low psychological distress and found to bring a positive effect on physical health and mental health adversity (Hu, Zhang & Wang, 2014). Therefore, these studies proved that people with resilience are able to thrive in adversity and protect themselves from the negative outcomes of such situation.
In relation to this, Izzati, under Dr. Ruhaya Hussin’s supervision, has investigated the relationship between psychological distress and its underlying factors (i.e. stress appraisal and financial strain) and resilience among individuals experiencing involuntary job loss in Malaysia. Using snowball and convenient sampling, a total of 229 participants who were laid off and unemployed within one month to three years took part in the study. As expected, the results indicated significant positive relationships between stress and psychological distress, and negative relationship between resilience and psychological distress. In terms of moderating effect, resilience only moderated the relationship between negative perception of stress and debt-dependence. The results supported stress as the contributor to psychological distress and resilience buffers psychological distress following job loss.
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About the Authors:
Ruhaya Hussin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the International Islamic University Malaysia. Her full profile can be found at https://psychologyiium.wixsite.com/website/ruhaya
Nurul Izzati Asyikin Zulkifly is a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the International Islamic University Malaysia. Her full profile can be found at https://psychologyiium.wixsite.com/website/nurul-izzati
Note: This article gives the views of the Authors, and not the position of the Department of Psychology IIUM Blog, nor of the Department of Psychology IIUM.