This proposed project is the next step in a coordinated program of research conducted by the Michigan Prevention Research Center (p50 MH38330) on the prevention of emotional and behavioral disorders, particularly depression, in individuals and families experiencing job loss and economic hardship. The proposed study builds on more than a decade of preventive intervention research with the JOBS project, a preventive intervention for persons experiencing job loss and at risk for depression (Caplan, Vinokur, Price & van Ryn, 1989; Price, van Ryn, & Vinokur, 1992; Vinokur, Price, & Schul, 1995). As a point of departure, the proposed project focuses on financial strain as a key mediator and as a target for preventive intervention and presents the development of the Financial Coping Intervention (FCI). The current proposal adopts the strategy of focusing preventive intervention on processes that mediate between risk-producing conditions and poor mental health outcomes (Pillow et al., 1991; Brown, 1991). We propose to conduct a randomized preventive trial to test the impact of the Financial Coping Intervention by itself, and in combination with the JOBS program. We also propose to conduct outcome and mediational analyses that will allow us to assess not only incremental impact of the Financial Coping Intervention (FCI), but also to test a number of hypotheses concerning the mediational mechanisms underlying the dynamics of job loss and financial hardship and the impacts of the programs themselves. We therefore propose to recruit 1,180 unemployed job seekers randomly allocated to a 2 X 2 factorial field experiment to test the additive and interactive effects of the Jobs Search and the new Financial Coping interventions on preventing poor mental health. The evaluation will include a one- week, six-month, and one year follow-up of all study participants. From a practical perspective, the project allows us to estimate the individual and combined effect of these interventions. It also constitutes the next step in the creation of a comprehensive program of preventive interventions for individuals and families experiencing job loss and economic hardship.
