Time structure and purposeful activity among employed and unemployed university graduates

Employed and unemployed male and female university graduates completed a questionnaire that included the Backman et al . (1978) self‐esteem scale, the short form of the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck & Beck, 1972) and items designed to measure employment importance and the extent to which time was used in a structured and purposeful way. It was found that graduates in the unemployed sample were less organized and less purposeful in their use of time and reported more depressive symptoms when compared with the employed sample. In both groups structured and purposeful use of time was positively associated with self‐esteem and negatively associated with depressive symptoms. Correlations between employment importance and the use of time measures (total score, engagement, direction, structure and routine) were negative for the unemployed sample and positive for the employed sample, indicating that employment importance functioned as a moderator variable. Female respondents reported higher employment importance and more use of a routine but their self‐esteem scores were lower than those of the male respondents. Results were related to Jahoda's analysis of the latent functions of employment and to other recent studies of employment and unemployment but were seen as extending beyond the Jahoda analysis.