data collection. Of these, 62 per cent were defined as refugees (arrived before the fall of the
wall) and 38 per cent were legal immigrants (arrived after the fall of the wall).
Design The study involved a longitudinal design and data were collected at three time
points.
Measures The subjects completed the following measures:
Employment status: this was recorded at the three time points and subjects were coded
as ‘always jobless’ (jobless throughout the study), ‘job hunt successful’ (jobless at the
beginning but employed by the end) and ‘never jobless’ (employed throughout the
study). Seven subjects who were employed at the beginning and lost their jobs were
excluded from the analysis as their numbers were too small.
Social support: the subjects were asked to rate statements on a four-point Likert
scale relating to (1) ‘received social support’, which referred to their retrospective
assessment of actual behaviours, such as ‘Friends and relatives have helped me
look for a job’; and (2) ‘perceived social support’, which referred to their anticipation
of social support in the future when in times of need, such as ‘There are people on
whom I can rely when I need help’.
Ill-health: the subjects were asked to rate a series of physical symptoms relating to (1)
heart complaints, (2) pains in the limbs, (3) stomach complaints and (4) exhaustion.
Results
The effect of employment on ill-health
The results were analysed to examine overall differences between the groups (always
jobless/job hunt successful/never jobless) and showed that at all three time points the
subjects who remained unemployed reported a greater number of physical symptoms
than the other subject groups. This difference was also related to gender, with men who
were always jobless reporting more ill-health than other individuals.
The effects of employment and social support on ill-health
The results were also analysed to examine the effect of social support on ill-health. The
results showed that social support had only a small effect on ill-health in those subjects
who were employed but had a much larger effect on those who had always been jobless.
Within the ‘always jobless’ group, those who reported higher levels of social support
reported far fewer physical symptoms than those who reported lower social support. In
addition, subjects who were both unemployed and reported low social support reported
more ill-health than all the other subjects.
The effects of employment on social support
The results were also analysed to examine the long-term effects of employment on
both social support and ill-health. The results suggest that employment is related to both
STRESS AND ILLNESS 275