Psychological effects of unemployment: A prospective study on cognitive control, emotion regulation, and distress

• Unemployment is a key risk factor for affective disorders. • Cognitive control, emotion regulation and affective symptoms were assessed. • Effortful control and cognitive control predict symptoms and resilience. Important individual differences exist in how people respond to major stressors. Despite the key roles attributed to emotion regulation and cognitive control in resilience and vulnerability to stress, relatively few studies have directly investigated these relationships upon confrontation with major stressors, such as unemployment. The current preregistered study set out to prospectively test mediational hypotheses, in which baseline cognitive control (assessed by performance on a cognitive task) and self-reported effortful control predict emotion regulation (follow-up 1), in turn predicting internalizing symptomatology or resilience (follow-up 2). Data of 84 people confronted with unemployment were analyzed using path models: one based on primary outcome measures (repetitive negative thinking and symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress) and one based on secondary questionnaire outcome measures (positive thinking style and resilience). The results show that effortful control and cognitive control are relevant distal factors to consider when investigating emotional symptoms in the unemployed. This study has sample modest in size, so it's important to interpret the results cautiously. The current study shows how cognitive factors and emotion regulation can contribute to emotional distress and resilience when facing unemployment.