Social Capital: a Possible Buffer for The Negative Effects of Unemployment on Well-Being

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic once again shows that unemployment continues to be a risk factor for subjective well-being due to the many negative effects it can have. Multiple theories and mechanisms are proposed to explain how unemployment leads to less subjective well-being. The role of social capital as an individual resource is explored as a moderator for the relation between unemployment on subjective well-being. The study makes use of the 2008 LISS data-set, using multiple linear regression to test for several hypothesis and is of cross-sectional design. The results show that no significant effect was found between unemployment and subjective well-being. Social capital did not prove a significant moderator between this relation, but did have a significant effect on unemployment on its own. Possible explanation for not finding a relation between unemployment and lower subjective well-being are explored and possible future research projects are addressed.