Unemployment, Social Vulnerability, and Health in Europe

It is not easy to summarize the studies that have dealt with the health effects of un employment on the unemployed. The main problem impeding a comparison of their results is the diversity of theoretical constructs associated with physical and especially mental health and, above all, an apparently inexhaustible variety of op erationalizations of these constructs. It is significant that the six conclusions drawn from the present state of unemployment research by the organizers of a re cent conference on the individual and social consequences of unemployment in cluded the following request: "In view of the relevant constructs, it seems to be most urgent to find or to develop operationalizations which can be agreed upon, in order to guarantee comparability of research results" (Kieselbach and Wacker 1985, p. XX; my translation). Nevertheless, the results of these studies allow the statement that a negative in fluence of job loss on psychological well-being can be regarded as a validated finding. The influence on physical health, however, must be assessed very careful ly and in a differentiated manner. The few investigations dealing with this ques tion arrive at different conclusions; moreover, possibly relieving effects of unem ployment on health come into sight.

Questions and Methods.- Unemployment, Social Vulnerability, and Health in Europe.- Problems of Measuring the Impact of Economic Change on Health.- Western Cases.- Plant Closures, Unemployment, and Health: Danish Experiences from the Declining Ship-Building Industry.- Health Effects of Unemployment: Approaches and Results of Empirical Research in the Federal Republic of Germany.- Research on Unemployment and Health in Great Britain.- Unemployment in a Developing Country: The Case of Greece.- Unemployment and Health: Findings of a Study in Sardinia.- The Subterranean Economy as a Survival Strategy: The Spanish Case.- Eastern Cases.- "Double Employment" and Health in Hungary.- Full Employment Policy and Rationalization and Health in Poland - An Outline.- Hospitalization of the Unemployed and the Relationship of the Rate of Unemployment to Some Socioeconomic and Sociomedical Indicators in Slovenia.- Youth Unemployment.- The Effects of Youth Unemployment: A Review of the Literature.- Unemployment and the Restructuring of Youth Labour Markets.- Young and Unemployed: Special Problems?.- Long-Term Unemployment.- Long-Term Unemployment: Its Role in Complex Vulnerabilities and their Health Consequences.- Vulnerability Among Long-Term Unemployed. A Longitudinal Study of Mental and Physical Health Among Swedish Women at Different Phases of Unemployment - Some Preliminary Results.- Psychological Impacts.- Psychological Impacts of Unemployment: Theory, Research Methodology, Assessment, and Help.- The Psychological Impact of Continuing Unemployment: Some Longitudinal Data and a General Model.- Self-Disclosure and Help-Seeking as Determinants of Vulnerability: Case Studies of Unemployed from Social-Psychiatric Services and Recommendations for Health and Social Policy.- BecomingSocially "Invulnerable".- Actions.- Actions and Policy Recommendations. A WHO Perspective - European Region.- Unemployment, Social Vulnerability, and Health. Activities of the Council of Europe.