El capital psicológico como predictor de la empleabilidad y la búsqueda de empleo en desempleados jóvenes

Abstract

As a result of the prolonged economic crisis and the slow global recovery, youth employment is undergoing a critical situation. Taking into account that there is no single approach to address all aspects that affect youth employment crisis, this research considers that an adequate way to clarify the problem of unemployment is to observe the job search process carried out by young people and how certain backgrounds influence it. The main objective of this research is, from the Theory of Planned Behavior, to analyze the role played by psychological capital (in its comparison with human capital and social capital) and perceived employability in the job search process carried out by young unemployed people. From this general objective, five specific objectives are extracted: 1) Analyze the psychometric properties of the instruments used; 2) Analyze the descriptive statistics of the variables under study in order to highlight the characteristics of the job search process; 3) Explore the influence of sociodemographic and socio-labor variables on psychological capital, social capital, perceived employability and the constructs that compose the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) applied to job search; 4) Analyze the Theory of Planned Behavior applied to job search in a sample of young unemployed people; and, 5) Analyze the influence of psychological capital, social capital, human capital and perceived employability on the components of the Theory of Planned Behavior applied to job search. In order to develop the exposed objectives, the research methodology followed in this research has been an explanatory design with latent variables. The sample is composed of 580 young unemployed people with an age between 16 and 29 years. Regarding the results of the research, in the first place, the psychometric validity of the instruments is generally confirmed. Secondly, the analysis of the descriptive statistics shows that the participants present an intermediate level of the analyzed variables. Third, in reference to the influence of sociodemographic variables on the constructs under study, it has been shown that sex, nationality, age, educational level, employment status, enrollment in the state employment service, the economic sector of the last job and both the time in unemployment and the time of job search influence the constructs examined. Fourth, the main postulates of the TPB applied to job search are confirmed. The results show that instrumental job search attitude, subjective norm and perceived control over job search skills predict job search intention, and that only this variable is configured as a predictor of job search behaviors. Neither the pleasurable job search attitude, nor the two remaining factors of perceived control (social network and job search difficulties) were able to relate significantly to job search intention, and none of the latter did so with job search behaviors. In addition, perceived control over job search skills is configured as the most important predictor of job search intention. Finally, job search intention acts as a mediator in the relationship between its predictors and job search behaviors. Fifth, referring to the hypotheses related to the role of the TPB backgrounds, it is concluded that both the perceived employability and the three types of intangible capital (human, social and psychological) are related only to the perceived control over job search skills. Also, psychological capital is configured as the variable with the greatest explanatory force of this. In turn, psychological capital and social capital are configured as predictors of perceived employability, whereas human capital does not. In general, perceived employability is not capable of mediating the relationship between the three types of intangible capital and the antecedents of the job search intention according to the TPB (job search attitude, subjective norm and perceived control). By way of conclusion, the results of this study favor a better understanding of job search process carried out by young people and the factors that influence it, while offering an interesting approach of how a positive psychological state can help unemployed young people in the arduous task of looking for a job. Therefore, it is concluded on the one hand, that the TPB stands as a useful and applicable theory to the job search process carried out by young unemployed Spanish people and, on the other hand, that psychological capital seems to be more useful in the job search process than the other types of intangible capital analyzed and perceived employability. In this way, it is expected that the relationships shown in the present research serve to promote the interest in this topic.