Self-Rated Health among Unemployed Adults: the Role of Quiet Ego, Self-Compassion, and Post-Traumatic Growth

Unemployment can be associated with negative psychological and physical health outcomes when it undermines an individual’s sense of self-worth and confidence. This study examined whether quiet ego, a self-identity motivated by a compassionate stance toward the self and others would be positively associated with self-reported health. Further, we expected this relationship to be mediated by two types of psychological capital: self-compassion, the ability to show kindness and understanding to one’s self during times of disappointment, and post-traumatic growth (PTG), the ability to derive a sense of meaning from adverse experiences. We also expected self-compassion and PTG to be associated with a robust measure of self-rated health. We tested a double mediation model in a sample of adults recruited from an employment center at the height of the Great Recession in 2010 (N = 173) and were also able to make some limited comparisons with a sample of employed adults (N = 60). For unemployed adults, quiet ego was associated with PTG. Quiet ego was positively related to self-rated health, mediated by self-compassion, for unemployed and employed adults.