The impact of adding personal counseling to traditional career services for unemployed middle-aged adults.

摘要

This study was designed to examine the impact of personal counseling in combination with traditional career services on middle-aged unemployed adults in comparison to traditional career services alone. The study included thirty-four participants between 45 and 65 years of age who were enrolled in a non-profit employment and training agency in a Midwest metropolitan area. All participants were seeking employment of at least twenty hours a week.; The participants were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups. Treatment Group A received six personal counseling sessions and the traditional career services offered by the agency. Treatment Group B participants received the traditional career services of the agency. To maintain their commitment to the study and to offset the benefit of attention alone, they also received six telephone calls.; Both groups were pre- and post-tested on anxiety, social and general self-efficacy and career resilience. Information on employment status at 16 weeks from entry into the study was gathered.; The study had four hypotheses. These hypotheses were that there would be a difference in anxiety, social and general self-efficacy, and career resilience between the groups on post-test and that there would be a difference between the groups on percentage of employment. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to determine significance of the data for the first three hypotheses. In addition, univariate F and repeated measures analysis of variance were used to look more closely at the findings for hypotheses one through three. Chi-square analysis was used to determine significance of hypothesis four.; No significant differences between the groups were found and, therefore, all four null hypotheses (no differences between groups) were retained.; The study findings did raise questions for further study and implications for counselors. These are described in the study.