Trial of Job-Search Mental Health App Reports Higher Employment
Losing a job can hurt mood, and low mood can make finding the next one harder. A Northwestern University-led trial now suggests a phone app that tackles both at once may help people break that cycle.
68.3% against 50.8%
The headline number is employment. In the app group, 68.3% found work. In the control group the figure was 50.8%.
People using the app also spent more time preparing for and pursuing jobs. On mood and depressive symptoms they came out ahead too: bigger gains in the first, bigger drops in the second.
Who took part
The study enrolled 126 unemployed adults across the US. None had ever earned more than $100,000 a year, and all had elevated depressive symptoms. Random assignment put them in the DRIVEN group or a control group. Controls got weekly emails with curated links to job advice and resources.
It ran for six weeks. The results appeared in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
Corner pieces first
DRIVEN pairs weekly self-guided mental health exercises, meant to reduce stress and raise motivation, with job-seeking strategies. It also includes three video sessions with a job coach. Inspiration at Work developed it for the trial.
The exercises draw on behavioural activation. It starts from the view that small actions tend to bring motivation, and early successes create momentum.
Senior author Stewart Shankman, a professor of psychiatry at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, offered a comparison. “When you do a jigsaw puzzle, you don't start with the middle pieces. You start with the corners,” he said. Participants were asked to find their own corner pieces, tasks that take about 15 minutes.
Users were also encouraged to think flexibly. That meant looking beyond one kind of job and noticing which of their skills carry over.
A job-first pitch for depression help
Shankman says the app is framed around finding work rather than treating depression, so it may ease stigma. Some people are reluctant to seek help for depression or even to talk about it, he said.
He also pointed to a difficult job market, where applicants use AI for materials and employers use it to evaluate them, which he said can be demotivating.
The study authors say that, with millions of unemployed adults in the US facing a difficult job market, an intervention like this may be needed more than ever.
The team is now looking at ways to offer the app beyond the study, possibly through state employment agencies and firms that provide job-search services to laid-off workers.
Source: Phys.org