GENERAL SYMPOSIUM SUMMARY

Unemployment remains a major social problem in Australia. Successive governments have attempted to address the problem, in part, by funding occupational skills based training programs for the unemployed. This symposium reports on an ongoing project which has evaluated psychological outcomes for unemployed people attending these training courses. Investigated in the project have been personal variables of well-being (e.g., distress, depression), confidence (e.g., self-efficacy), attitude (e.g., work commitment); training variables of social climate; and outcome variables, such as return-to-work levels. Presentation 1 reviews the general area of occupational skills training for unemployed people in Australia and overseas, and reports on outcomes for individuals attending "typical" training courses. Presentation 2 reports on outcomes for unemployed individuals who attended specially devised training programs which were aimed at improving well-being and confidence. Presentation 3 is workshop based and presents an overview of the specially devised well-being/confidence training.

Presentation 1: Peter A. Creed

Evaluating personal and employment related outcomes for unemployed individuals attending "typical" occupational skills training programs.

Presentation 2: M. Anthony (Tony) Machin

Evaluating personal and employment related outcomes for unemployed individuals attending specially devised cognitive-behavioural training programs.

Presentation 3: Pat Nicholls

Training techniques and resource materials for specially devised cognitive-behavioural training programs to improve well-being and employment outcomes for unemployed individuals.

Peter A. Creed

School of Applied Psychology

Griffith University

PMB 50 Gold Coast Mail Centre

Queensland 4217

Email: p.creed@bhm.gu.edu.au

Abstract

The results presented here are drawn from a series of ongoing studies which commenced in 1991. These studies have been primarily longitudinal in character, and have included both quantitative and qualitative methodologies (Creed, In Press; Creed, Hicks & Machin, 1996; Creed, Hicks & Machin, In Press; Creed, Machin & Hicks, 1996; Creed, Machin & Hicks, In Press; Phelps & Creed, 1995).

The main foci of the symposium will be on three main aspects: (a) reporting the immediate and the long-term psychological outcomes for unemployed people who attend "typical" occupational training courses which have been a feature of labour market interventions during the past decade in Australia; (b) reporting on the efficacy of specially developed training programs to meet the needs of unemployed participants. These training courses were based on the cognitive-behavioural training model (CBT), which assumes that thoughts and views of the world determine feelings and consequent behaviour; and (c) presenting a detailed description and demonstration of the procedures used with the CBT based training. The main outcome variables reported will be well-being (e.g., self-esteem, distress), work salience (e.g., work commitment, self-efficacy), life situation variables (e.g., social support, coping skills), training variables (e.g., training climate), and outcome variables (e.g., return-to-work).

Context: Unemployment has been a re-occurring problem throughout this century, and has been a feature for Australia and other industrialized countries since the early to mid 1970s. The unemployment rate in Australia in the early 1990s, when the research reported here began, was approaching nine per cent (equating to nearly 740,000 people out of work, with more than 150,000 of these being long-term unemployed, or out of work for 12 months or more [Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1991]). By the end of 1994, the unemployment rate had risen to around 11 per cent (900,000 people out of work [Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1994a], with just over 350,000 long-term unemployed [Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1994b]). The current official Australian unemployment rate is between eight and nine percent.

Effects of Unemployment: It is now well documented that for many the experience of unemployment brings with it problems related to personal effectiveness and general well-being. Evidence for this comes from early studies carried out during the Great Depression of the 1930s (e.g., Jahoda, Lazarsfeld & Zeisel, 1933), and from research conducted more recently when the Western economies again went into decline (for recent reviews see Allatt & Yeandle, 1992; Barling, 1990; Leana & Feldman, 1992; Winefield, 1995; Winefield, Tiggemann, Winefield & Goldney, 1993).

The broad conclusion from these more recent reviews, which supports the earlier work, is that the experience of unemployment is generally negative to the individual's well-being. These studies draw similar conclusions across time, and across national borders, despite there being different unemployed populations affected and different conditions prevailing. During the 1930s, for example, it was the primary bread winner mainly affected, whereas today teenagers and specific cultural sub-groups are disproportionately disadvantaged. Further, in Australia today there is some form of financial security for unemployed people, and general medical care is better and more readily available.

Moreover, longitudinal studies have been able to demonstrate that the negative effects associated with unemployment have been caused by people moving from being employed to being unemployed, and are by and large not associated with individuals with constitutional weakness "drifting" into joblessness (e.g., Liem & Liem, 1988; Patton & Noller, 1990; Winefield & Tiggemann, 1990).

Assistance for Unemployed People: A range of programs is offered by governments, unions, charitable organisations and private agencies, and includes help in the form of counselling, training, case management, job clubs, drop-in centres, sporting opportunities, résumé preparation, and free advertising in newspapers and journals. However, there have been very few studies which have examined the many strategies aimed at assisting those out of work and improving the negative effects of unemployment so widely reported.

In particular, there have been few evaluations of outcomes for training-based interventions for unemployed people. This is despite the use of occupational skills and personal development training programs being used as one of the main strategies of the Australian government to assist the unemployed during the 1990s (Commonwealth of Australia, 1994). Only a handful of evaluations has appeared in the psychological literature (e.g., Caplan, Vinokur, Price & van Ryn, 1989; Creed, Machin & Hicks, 1996a, 1996b; Eden & Aviram, 1993; Harry & Tiggemann, 1992; Muller, 1992).

Training Based Interventions: Skills and personal development training for unemployed people in Australia has formed one aspect of the Federal Government's agenda for improving the national skills base. Other strategies to meet this goal have included increasing secondary school retention rates, increasing tertiary participation, broadening post-school training opportunities through apprenticeships, traineeships and Technical and Further Education (TAFE) colleges, and introducing a range of special measures to assist the unemployed enter and re-enter the labour market (Department of Employment Education and Training, 1991a). This focus on the expansion of the general educational and training opportunities available in this country is also aimed at structural adjustment to convert the national economy from one heavily dependent upon exports of natural resources to one more broadly based and internationally competitive (Dawkins & Holding, 1987).

During the 1990s in Australia there were three major labour market programs specifically aimed at skilling/re-skilling the large numbers of unemployed in Australia. The first included formal adult and youth training courses delivered through the TAFE network, fee-for-service private providers, and industry bodies. The second involved wage subsidies where employers received dollar subsidies to hire an individual and provide on-the-job training. The third major program was training delivered by community based centres, primarily Skillshare centres. For example, 92,000 unemployed individuals received training at Skillshare centres during 1990 (D.E.E.T., 1991b).

Psychological Outcomes for Training Based Interventions: Early studies into training based interventions focused on the effects of training on the work retention rates of "hard core unemployed" individuals. The hard core unemployed were defined as potential workers who could not obtain employment despite a high demand existing in the labour market (Cohn & Lewis, 1975). Doubts were raised about the effectiveness of such training (Goodman, Salipante & Paransky, 1973; Triandis, Feldman, Weldon & Harvey, 1974), and some authors believed that training was dysfunctional as it raised the expectations of obtaining work and about the work environment itself (Goodale, 1973).

Some variables were identified which predisposed these training programs to be successful. Course content, for example, was seen to be a critical factor. Programs which included high job-skills training content were related to increased work retention rates, while high social-skills and attitude-training content led to poorer outcomes (Salipante & Goodman, 1976). Training programs which did not address social-skills acquisition at all, however, also had poor retention rates (Tiffany, Cowan & Tiffany, 1970).

More recently, certain mental health benefits have been identified as accruing as a result of attending training. These benefits include: reductions in psychological distress (Donovan, et al., 1986; Harry & Tiggemann, 1992; Kemp & Mercer, 1983; Oddy, Donovan, & Pardoe, 1984; Stafford, 1982; Winefield, 1985), improvements in self-esteem (Donovan et al., 1986; Oddy et al., 1984; Winefield, 1985), improvements in life satisfaction (Donovan et al., 1986; Oddy et al., 1984), and reductions in levels of depression (Harry & Tiggemann, 1992; Winefield, 1985).

Some benefits identified for participants while they were in training have also been found to persist at follow-up. Such longer term well-being gains have been identified for variables such as depression (Harry & Tiggemann, 1992; Muller, 1992; Winefield, 1985), psychological distress (Harry & Tiggemann, 1992), and self-esteem (Muller, 1992).

Not all evaluations of training courses for unemployed individuals, however, have demonstrated mental health improvements for participants as compared with control subjects (e.g., Branthwaite & Garcia, 1985; Caplan et al., 1989). In other studies, negative mental health consequences for participants have been identified, with some unemployed participants reporting less control over their lives (Donovan et al., 1986; Oddy et al., 1984), and some demonstrating a decline in social support (Kristensen, 1991).

From the above, there is some evidence that intervention programs which include personal development and/or occupational skills training do improve the well-being of some unemployed in the short-term, and that these results may persist following the end of the course or intervention. There is also evidence that such interventions can operate to improve the employment outcomes for participants.

Current Research Program: The research program presented here builds on the Australian and overseas work reviewed above. The focus has primarily been on the well-being and mental health outcomes for long-term unemployed subjects who attended a range of training courses, which are referred to above (Skillshare, Youth Conservation Corps). The courses evaluated have been mainly occupational skills-based, but all included some components of personal development training. Levels of psychological distress, depression, guilt, anger, helplessness, positive affect, negative affect, life satisfaction and self esteem are used as measures of well-being. Other variables used in the studies but not addressed here were the personality variable of neuroticism, the attitude to work variables of employment value, employment expectations and employment commitment, the life situation variables of social support, financial strain, and use of community and professional resources, causal attribution and blame variables, coping, self efficacy, training climate, and changes to occupational status.

Data were collected longitudinally by having subjects complete questionnaires and standardized inventories prior to attendance at a training course, at the completion of the training course, and again at three to four month follow-up in order to investigate the long-term effects of the training. Outcomes for participants were contrasted with waiting-list control subjects. Longitudinal qualitative data, designed to be illustrative and flesh out the quantitative data, were also collected.

Summary Outcomes of Training: In general, outcomes for unemployed people who attended occupational skills based training were more favourable in the areas of well-being. There was consistent evidence that attendance at the training courses improved well-being for participants as a group, as compared with the control subjects. Lower levels of depression, psychological distress, helplessness, and negative mood were recorded after the courses compared to pre-course levels, and there were improvements in levels of self-esteem, life satisfaction and positive mood over the same time period.

There was little evidence that the courses led to changes in attitude-to-work. Employment expectations were generally raised as a result of course attendance. However, no changes were identified on variables of employment commitment (which was already high pre-course), employment value, self-efficacy and confidence. There was also little evidence for changes in life situation variables such as, perceived social support, financial strain, and the unemployed person's use of community resources, such as general practitioners, social workers.

Possible explanations for the improvements in well-being as a result of attending training can be found in the deprivation model of Jahoda (1981, 1982), which would predict improvements due to the training courses substituting for paid work and meeting some individual needs (e.g., social contact) of attendees; and the agency restriction model of Fryer (1986), which would predict that training courses would operate to empower personal agency and control. A third explanation is that the unemployed people were recipients of increased personal attention and were exposed to novel stimuli, and that improvements were simply Hawthorne effects.

The greatest gains from the training courses were made by those unemployed who began the training courses with the poorer levels of well-being. Those participants with higher psychological distress and depression levels, for example, improved more, that is, responded differently to the training courses, than those who started the training with better levels of well-being.

While these typical training courses did demonstrated improvements in well-being for participants in the short term, that is changes were identified between pre- and post-measures, generally, the gains made by participants, unless they obtained work, did not persist into the long-term (3-4 month follow-up). Well-being scores typically (i.e., depression, helplessness, and psychological distress) returned to pre-course levels by 12 weeks after course.

Training courses evaluated in during this research were typical 4-7 week work-preparation programs which were aimed at providing unemployed participants with the necessary skills to obtain and maintain paid work. These goals included the aim of improving general functioning so that participants would be better able to seek and apply for work, and better able to hold down a job if one was obtained. Approximately 100,000 unemployed individuals received training at community centres each year (D.E.E.T., 1991c). The evidence presented here, specifically in relation to well-being, is that (a) short-term improvements in general well-being functioning were identified, (b) that those who presented to the training with the poorer well-being benefited more, although these participants did not improve to the level identified for non-unemployed normative samples, and (c) that short term gains had dissipated by 12 weeks following the course if participants failed to return to work.

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Tony Machin

Department of Psychology

University of Southern Queensland

Toowoomba. 4350.

machin@usq.edu.au

The cognitive-behavioural model assumes that thoughts and views of the world determine feelings and consequent behaviour. It follows that any intervention should be aimed at thinking, and in particular, at the "explanatory style" used. Seligman's (1990) concept of "learned optimism" met this criterion. Seligman describes how relatively precise learning goals can be achieved in short periods. Further, he details a training sequence for imparting the necessary skills to bring about changes for the better in feelings and behaviours by learning more constructive thoughts and statements, and by developing more optimistic explanatory styles.

The course needed to deliver the training within the expected concentration and interest span of the long-term unemployed client group. The end result was a three day program which consisted of one three hour and one two hour session each day (five hours per day, giving a total of fifteen hours). This met exposure guide-lines set by Seligman and others who, for example, have designed short courses for the teaching of flexible optimism to children (Seligman, 1990, pp. 308-309) and business personnel (Seligman, 1990, pp. 302). Course trainers were all registered Psychologists in Queensland who had received training in the delivery of the CBT program. Training was conducted in centres away from CES offices (e.g., Skillshare) but in the locality of those attending.

Procedure: Participants were administered questionnaires immediately prior to the well-being course (T1), on completion of the course (T2), and by mail 14-16 weeks after the course (T3). Control subjects were administered questionnaires in person at T1, and through the mail for Times 2 and 3. Forty-three participants completed questionnaires at T1, 43 (100%) at T2, and 22 (51%) responded at T3. Corresponding numbers for control subjects were 22, 22 (100%), and 10 (45%).

Measures: Four standardised scales were utilised to measure psychological health and coping behaviours. All scales have been previously used in occupational studies, and have satisfactory psychometric properties reported in the literature.

Three scales were used to assess well-being: (i) the 12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) (Goldberg, 1972, 1978), which measures psychological distress; (ii) a modified Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE) (Feather, 1990; Rosenberg, 1965), which measures global self-esteem; and (iii) the Positive and Negative Affectivity Schedule (PANAS) (Watson, Clark & Tellegan, 1988), which measures the two mood factors of positive affect (e.g., enthusiasm, alertness) and negative affect (e.g., anger, fear).

The Personal Resources Questionnaire (PRQ) was used to gain a measure of general coping. The PRQ forms one of three domains assessed by the Occupational Stress Inventory (Osipow & Spokane, 1987). It has four sub-scales of Coping Recreation (RE), which measures recreational use; Coping Self Care (SC), which measures stress reducing personal activities; Coping Social Support (SS), which measures perceived support from others; and Rational/Cognitive Coping (RC), which measures cognitive strategies to deal with stress. Some items of the PRQ were slightly modified to suit the unemployed group (e.g, the word "trainer" was used instead of "teacher").

Effects of Course Participation: To measure the effect of participating in the training course, all Time 2 scores were adjusted for scores at Time 1 (using covariate adjustments), and t-tests were used to examine differences between the experimental and the control groups. The two groups differed significantly at Time 2 on all of the dependent variables: psychological distress, self esteem, positive affect, negative affect, coping (RE), coping (SC), coping (SS), and coping (RC), indicating improvements in well-being and coping for course participants.

The evidence from these analyses is that psychological well-being improved for course participants over the period of the training, compared with control subjects. There was a significant lowering of psychological distress and negative affect levels, an elevation of self esteem and positive affect levels, and improvements in the four measures of general coping. Control subjects, on the other hand, apart from coping self-care where there was a significant decline, demonstrated no change on the eight variables across the period of the training program.

Long-term Effects of Course: In order to determine whether the identified beneficial effects of the training course persisted beyond Time 2 and throughout the follow-up period, a series of separate multifactor analyses of variance with repeated measures on time were calculated for each of the dependent variables. These analyses were carried out using a between group factor (participant and control) and an across time factor (T2 and T3).

Again, in order to take into account the differences between the two groups found on two of the eight dependent variables at Time 1, all data scores at Time 2 and Time 3 were adjusted for scores at Time 1, and the multifactor ANOVAs were performed using these adjusted scores. Thirty-two subjects were available for this analysis (22 participants and 10 control subjects responded at Time 3). The four participants (18%) and three (30%) control subjects who were in paid employment at Time 3 were retained in the analysis.

For this cohort, a significant interaction effect was identified only for the well-being variable of psychological distress (GHQ), F(1, 30) = 6.35, p < .05, which indicates that scores here reverted to pre-course levels by Time 3. Significant between group main effects were identified for the dependent variables of self-esteem, F(1, 30) = 10.63, p < .01, positive affect, F(1, 29) = 8.20, p < .05, negative affect, F(1, 29) = 6.33, p < .05, coping (SC), F(1, 29) = 8.41, p < .05, and coping (RC), F(1, 29) = 5.53, p < .05. Non-significant interaction effects indicated that the significant differences identified on these well-being variables between participants and non-participants at Time 2, were maintained over the three month follow-up period.

In summary, for those subjects who responded at Time 3, six of the eight variables changed significantly as a result of attending the course. Levels of psychological distress and negative affect abated, self esteem and positive affect rose, and there were improvements on two of the four coping measures (self-care and rational/cognitive coping). Only for coping recreation and coping social support were significant improvements not registered. On all variables, apart from psychological distress, the improvements which were found for course participants at Time 2 were maintained to Time 3.

Behavioural Plasticity Effects: A final series of analyses was carried out to determine if behavioural plasticity effects were operating over the period of the course. That is, to test whether subjects with higher initial distress scores responded differently to the training than those with lower initial scores. Subjects were allocated to either a high or a low scoring condition based on a median split of Time 1 raw scores. This was done for both participants and control subjects, and for all variables. These data were then analysed using multifactor analyses of variance with a between group factor (participants and non-participants), an across time factor (T1 and T2), and a dichotomised group factor (low and high scoring groups). To be able to attribute a behavioural plasticity effect, a significant three way interaction (group x time x high vs low subjects) was required, irrespective of the significance of the main effects.

A significant interaction effect was identified for one of the eight dependent variables, that of psychological distress (GHQ), F(1, 56) = 4.72, p < .05. This significant interaction indicated differential training effects for the four groups (of high and low distressed participant groups, and high and low distressed control groups). A post hoc analysis indicated no significant change across the period of training for the low or the high distressed control group conditions. Similarly, there was no significant change across time for the low distressed participant condition. For the high distressed participant condition, however, there was a significant improvement resulting from the course (R Crit = 4.16, MSR = 13.38, p < .01). In summary, this analysis demonstrated that improvements in psychological distress were greater for those who reported higher levels at Time 1 than for those who exhibited lower distress pre-course.

Employment Status: At Time 3, all subjects were asked to indicate their employment status (i) during the follow-up period, and (ii) at the 14-16 week follow-up point. Subjects indicated whether they had been employed in any paid capacity since Time 2; whether they had engaged in any training activity during the follow-up period; and whether they were in employment at Time 3. Of those who responded at Time 3 (22 participants, 10 control subjects), control subjects were more likely to have obtained paid work during the period than participants (50% vs 41%); and participants were marginally more likely to have attended further training (36% vs 30%). At Time 3, fewer participants than controls reported being in a job (18% vs 30%). None of these differences was statistically significant.

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