Employment and poverty: Why work matters in understanding poverty.

This article synthesizes the work-related dynamics that contribute to economic inequality and identifies ways for psychologists to offer their expertise to mitigate poverty through employment and re-employment. We summarize scholarship from subspecialties under the umbrella of work psychology to explore concepts germane to understanding unemployment, underemployment, and reemployment. The review and synthesis is organized around 4 primary themes that concern the relationships between work, economic inequality, and poverty. First, unemployment has devastating financial and psychological consequences for individuals, families, and communities. Second, reemployment is challenging to acquire but crucial to recovering from unemployment and escaping poverty. Third, systemic and societal factors, such as employment bias and gaps in employment law, shape and constrain employment processes for individuals and organizations. Fourth, the nature of employment is changing because of technological advances, growth in the contingent labor force, and globalized business relationships that introduce new concerns for underemployment, unemployment, and reemployment processes for individuals. We conclude by charting important directions for future research, describing promising interventions for practitioners, and summarizing opportunities for psychologists to apply their knowledge and expertise to support policies that can alleviate poverty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Better together? Examining profiles of employee recovery experiences.

Employees are exposed to a wide variety of job demands that deplete personal resources and necessitate recovery. In light of this need, research on work recovery has focused on how distinct recovery experiences during postwork time relate to employee well-being. However, investigators have largely tested the effects of these experiences in isolation, neglecting the possibility that profiles of recovery experiences may exist and influence the recovery process. The current set of studies adopted a person-centered approach using latent profile analysis to understand whether unique constellations of recovery experiences-psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery, control, and problem-solving pondering-emerged for 2 samples of full-time employees. In Study 1, which involved a single-time-point assessment, we identified 4 unique profiles of recovery experiences, tested whether job demands (i.e., time pressure, role ambiguity) and job resources (i.e., job control) differentiated profile membership, and evaluated whether each profile uniquely related to employee well-being outcomes (i.e., emotional exhaustion, engagement, somatic complaints). In Study 2, which involved 2 time points, we replicated 3 of the 4 profiles observed in Study 1, and tested 2 additional antecedents rated by employees' supervisors: leader-member exchange and supervisor support for recovery. Across both studies, unique differences emerged in regard to antecedents and outcomes tied to recovery experience profile membership. (PsycINFO Database Record

A grounded theory exploration of undergraduate experiences of vicarious unemployment.

The experiences of vicarious unemployment (VU) among 17 undergraduate student participants who had a primary caregiver who was involuntarily unemployed were explored using grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006; Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Data from semistructured interviews with 15 women and 2 men revealed the nuanced nature of experiences with unemployment among those who experience it vicariously. Struggles related to increased family stress and experiences with stigma were common across participants. As participants reflected upon these challenges, they both lamented the costs associated with the struggles and expressed appreciation for the lessons that they have learned. They emerged from their VU experiences with increased financial and job market awareness, which informed their hope for a life that is free from the struggles endured in their families. Participants expressed confidence in their ability to cultivate financial security for their own families, stable employment, and opportunities to pursue work that will allow them to give back to others. Implications for counseling and directions for future research are discussed.

Financial strain and regional unemployment as barriers to job search self-efficacy: a test of social cognitive career theory.

Social cognitive career theory (SCCT) emphasizes the potential impact of contextual barriers on vocational self-efficacy, interests, and goals. However, most tests of SCCT to date have focused exclusively on person-level, perceptual barriers rather than objective, macroeconomic barriers that may influence large groups of people. In this study, we examine how the effects of personal experiences with financial strain among a sample of adults who are unemployed are qualified by regional unemployment rates. Results indicated that financial strain has a direct, negative relation with job search self-efficacy, and indirect, negative relations with job search outcome expectations and search goals. These direct and indirect relations are moderated by unemployment rates and are only significant for participants residing in U.S. counties with high unemployment. These findings highlight the importance of taking into account broader contextual influences when studying vocational outcomes and demonstrate the applicability of incorporating macroeconomic barriers and supports into SCCT in future research.

Emotional display rules as work unit norms: a multilevel analysis of emotional labor among nurses.

Emotional labor theory has conceptualized emotional display rules as shared norms governing the expression of emotions at work. Using a sample of registered nurses working in different units of a hospital system, we provided the first empirical evidence that display rules can be represented as shared, unit-level beliefs. Additionally, controlling for the influence of dispositional affectivity, individual-level display rule perceptions, and emotion regulation, we found that unit-level display rules are associated with individual-level job satisfaction. We also showed that unit-level display rules relate to burnout indirectly through individual-level display rule perceptions and emotion regulation strategies. Finally, unit-level display rules also interacted with individual-level dispositional affectivity to predict employee use of emotion regulation strategies. We discuss how future research on emotional labor and display rules, particularly in the health care setting, can build on these findings.