A search for meaning during financial crisis: An interpretative phenomenological study of highly educated and unemployed Greek young professionals

The main objective of this study was to understand what meaning young Greek professionals make of the Greek socio-financial crisis. In addition, it explored the impact of the crisis in their daily life and how and if the crisis affected their attitudes and values in life. Eight volunteers, highly educated and unemployed young Greek people were interviewed about their experiences and meaning making processes while living in Greece during the ten-year (2009-2019) economic crisis. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to extract seven key themes: meaning making in the financial crisis, negative impacts of unemployment, positive impacts of unemployment, attitudes in the financial crisis, values in the financial crisis, dominant emotions, social observations and culture. The findings show that the educated and unemployed young professionals who live in Greece choose additional studies to create meaning and opportunities, while they spend more time with significant others; they love the natural environment of the country and use art and psychotherapy for their meaning making processes. Additionally, they keep their values unaffected, have an overall optimistic attitude for overcoming the crisis by accepting the harsh situation, while they critically reflect on the positive and negative impacts of their unemployment. Moreover, the study aimed to help counselling psychologists have a better understanding of existential psychology concepts such as the search for meaning and in particular the way it can affect the lives of young unemployed professionals who live in crisis, hoping for a contribution to their practice.