Search

Individuals diagnosed with serious mental illnesses continue to experience work-related disparities despite the existence of evidence-based practices. Understanding the meaning of work among these individuals is key to developing interventions grounded in career development theory and practice. This qualitative inquiry adapted a consensual qualitative research approach and utilized a participatory component to conduct an in-depth exploration of the meaning of work among a national sample of young adults and older adults living with serious mental illness. The psychology of working perspective was applied to the results after analyses. Results revealed categories that clustered within four overarching domains pertaining to work as central to survival, social connectedness, self-determination, and mental health recovery as proposed by the theory. Implications for services, research, and policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current vocational services for adults with serious mental illness remain largely atheoretical and disconnected from mainstream vocational psychology research and practice. This study explored the perspectives on work of adults with serious mental illness, compared perspectives of young and older adults, and assessed these perspectives for the applicability of a well-established theory of vocational psychology. A national sample of 76 individuals with mental illness engaged in the workforce completed a semistructured questionnaire. We applied the principles of a participatory approach to consensual qualitative research methodology in the study design and data analysis. Results yielded a large number of categories, which clustered under domains representative of the primary constructs of social cognitive career theory (SCCT; Lent, 2013). These domains included the antecedents of self-efficacy, namely, personal accomplishments, vicarious learning, social persuasion, and physical or emotional states as well as additional constructs of outcome expectations, personal goals, and contextual barriers. The SCCT model will likely provide a useful framework to bridge the gap between career development theory and vocational services for individuals with mental illness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]