DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02739.v1
title: Jobs II Preventive Intervention for Unemployed Job Seekers, 1991-1993: [Southeast Michigan]
title: Version 1

description: These data explore the impact of job loss and unemployment
 on workers' stress and mental health, and evaluate the potential
 benefits of participation in a job-search skills seminar. Respondents
 were recruited from four offices of the Michigan Employment Security
 Commission (MESC) in southeastern Michigan. A group of 31,560
 unemployed persons were approached for the study. Of these, about
 23,000 failed to meet basic initial criteria because they were new
 entrants to the labor market, already re-employed, or just
 accompanying others in line. Respondents were kept in the pool if they
 were not on strike and not expecting to be recalled for work in the
 next few months or planning to retire in the next two years. The
 resulting group of 7,956 were then assessed for symptoms of depression
 and willingness to participate in a job-seeking skills seminar. These
 final exclusion criteria resulted in a pool of 3,402. A screening
 questionnaire (Part 1) was administered to that pool, which allowed
 the researchers to classify respondents as being at high risk for
 depression and anxiety or at low risk. All of the high-risk
 respondents and a random sample of the low-risk participants were
 invited to participate in the study and in the MESC's Job
 Opportunities and Basic Skills II (JOBSII) intervention program, which
 consisted of a set of job-search skills seminars. JOBS II was
 patterned after JOBS I, which was offered by the MESC in the late
 1980s. A pretest questionnaire (Part 2) was mailed to respondents
 between February and July 1991, two weeks prior to the invitation to
 participate in the JOBS intervention seminar. The questionnaire
 addressed the situation surrounding the respondents' loss of
 employment, quality of work life in previous job, level of economic
 hardship, attitudes toward obtaining a new job, social support
 network, self-esteem, feelings of anxiety and/or depression, health
 problems, and substance abuse history and related problems. At the
 same time, a mail questionnaire was sent to each respondent's
 significant other (Part 6). Items in this questionnaire focused on the
 length of their relationship with the respondent, the level of support
 given to the respondent, the significant other's observations
 regarding the daily activities of the respondent during this period of
 job loss, the significant other's feelings of anxiety and/or
 depression, and the significant other's level of economic hardship. A
 second and third mail questionnaire were sent six weeks (Part 3) and
 six months (Part 4) after the respondents' participation in a JOBS
 intervention program job-seeking skills seminar. For those respondents
 who had gained employment, questions were asked regarding current
 employment status, sense of job permanence, employee benefits, and
 feelings toward current job. Those respondents still seeking
 employment were queried about their intention to continue their job
 search, job-seeking behaviors, confidence in their ability to obtain a
 job, and the presence or lack of a social support network. For those
 respondents still unemployed six months after the intervention
 seminar, additional questions covered receipt of unemployment benefits
 and how necessary those benefits were. Similarly, significant others
 were queried both six weeks (Part 7) and six months (Part 8) after the
 respondents' participation in the job intervention. Topics focused on
 their relationship with the respondent, the observed daily activities
 of the respondent, the emotional support given to the respondent, the
 respondent's job-seeking behavior, the respondent's and significant
 other's feelings of anxiety and/or depression, and the level of shared
 responsibility regarding the payment of bills and other economic
 hardships. Finally, respondents were questioned through a mail survey
 two years (Part 5) after their participation in the intervention
 seminar about their employment status, quality of work life, financial
 strain endured, social support system, relationship satisfaction,
 self-esteem, feelings of anxiety and/or depression, health, and sense
 of control. Significant others were also queried after two years (Part
 9) regarding their relationship with the respondent, the significant
 other's familiarity with the respondent's feelings of anxiety and/or
 depression, their social support network, and the significant other's
 feelings of anxiety and/or depression. Background information on
 respondents includes age, sex, race, Hispanic descent, education,
 marital status, age of children in household, number of financial
 dependents, and household income. Background information on
 significant others includes age, sex, race, Hispanic descent,
 education, and employment status. Following the conclusion of the JOBS
 intervention program, respondents were asked to complete a mail
 questionnaire (Part 10) evaluating the effectiveness of the program
 agenda and assessing the relevance of the seminar to their job search,
 the effectiveness of the seminar trainers, inoculation against
 setbacks, impact on their self-esteem, effect on their interviewing
skills, and resume preparedness.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Time 0 Data: Focal Respondent Screening
DS2: Time 1 Data: Focal Respondents Prior to Intervention
DS3: Time 2 Data: Focal Respondents Six Weeks After Intervention
DS4: Time 3 Data: Focal Respondents Six Months After Intervention
DS5: Time 4 Data: Focal Respondents Two Years After Intervention
DS6: Time 1 Data: Significant Others Prior to Intervention
DS7: Time 2 Data: Significant Others Six Weeks After Intervention
DS8: Time 3 Data: Significant Others Six Months After Intervention
DS9: Time 4 Data: Significant Others Two Years After Intervention
DS10: Program Evaluation Data
DS11: Scales and Relevant Items: All Respondents (Time 0-Time 4)
DS12: Scales and Subscales: All Respondents (Time 1-Time 3)
DS13: Scales and Subscales: All Respondents (Time 4)
description: (1) The data are provided as SPSS export files. (2)
 The responses for variable V3468 in Part 11 were coded
 incorrectly. The 0's should be recoded to 1's and the 1's should be
 recoded to 0's. (3) This collection has not been processed by ICPSR
 staff. ICPSR is distributing the data and documentation for this
 collection in essentially the same form in which they were
 received. When appropriate, hardcopy documentation has been converted
 to machine-readable form and variables have been recoded to ensure
 respondents' anonymity. (4) The codebooks are provided as Portable
 Document Format (PDF) files. The PDF file format was developed by
 Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader
 software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to
 obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided through the ICPSR
Website on the Internet.