Unemployment and the health of Slovak adolescents

Research on unemployment started during the 1930’s and still attracts the attention of many researchers. It has been found that job loss has serious negative consequences for many aspects of the individual’s life. However, the influence of unemployment on the individual is not simple and is moderated by a large number of individual and situational variables, many of which need to be explored. Unemployment is one of the factors which are important also for the health and well-being of adolescents. Relationships between the health of young people and unemployment can be viewed from two perspectives. Firstly, their own unemployment can have serious negative health consequences for them. Secondly, among those living with their parents, unemployment of one or both parents could also cause serious health problems. The main aim of the present study was to explore both perspectives. The first chapter of this thesis provides basic information about unemployment in society and individual joblessness. It also describes some differences in experiences of unemployment between adolescents and adults and shows possibilities of connections between parental unemployment and the health of adolescents. At the end of the chapter five research questions are formulated, focusing on the health of adolescents (chapter 3); the relationship between their employment status and health with mediating effects of financial strain and social support (chapter 4); the effect of parental unemployment with the mediating effect of financial strain (chapter 5); the effect of parental support on adolescents’ health in situations of differing employment status of the parents (chapter 6); and finally, the cultural and societal context in the relationship between parental unemployment and adolescents’ health is studied (chapter 7).