[Ontogenetic conditions of unemployment]

Previous unemployment studies mostly dealt with unemployments economic causes and consequences. Hidden causes of male unemployment, independent from socio-economic circumstances of a society, could consist, besides others, in natural biological factors - family experience during childhood. Theoretical background of our study included the concept of psychical deprivation, the concept of human ontogenesis developmental stages of E. Erikson and knowledge of biodromal psychology. Using data from the European Longitudinal Study of Parenthood and Childhood international project we compared groups of employed and unemployed men by means of a retrospective survey and we studied the following: 1. What differences there were in their childhood; 2. To what extent educational approaches transfer from parents to their children; 3. What influence has negative experience from childhood on the future assertion of men in the labour market.

The survey set consisted of 3141 (88.7%) employed men and 399 (11.3%) unemployed men in 1991-1992. Basic research data were acquired by means of questionnaires. Relative risk was used to compare the groups of the employed and the unemployed. The employed men are more likely to be from complete families then the unemployed men. The unemployed men, in comparison to the employed men, 2.08 times more frequently spent their childhood in orphanages, children's villages or in foster families, 3.89 times more frequently attended special schools, 2.22 times more frequently lived away from home until the age of 18 and 2.51 times more frequently lived in detention centres or in diagnostic institutes until the age of 18 (p < 0.001). 66.6% of the employed men and 65.1% of the unemployed men were psychically and physically abused in their childhood.

Consequences of negative experience from childhood decrease the chances of inclusion of young men into the labour market. Social roles of young men (future fathers) could be also distorted by such experience. Social integration and social success rate of the unemployed men group therefore develops in an unfavourable direction.