3.2. Randomization and Dropout Analysis
depressive symptoms
To determine whether the statistical analyses were indeed performed according to a randomized controlled design, we compared the demographic and the outcome variables for statistically significant differences between the IVG and WCG at T0 (N = 94). There were only a few differences between the two groups at T0 in demographic variables, including duration of unemployment. The largest difference between the two groups was related to gender, as the proportion of men was greater in the IVG than in the WCG (58 vs. 50%) (Baseline (T0) characteristics of the intervention and waiting control group (N = 94).* A For the outcome variables, there were two variables that differed somewhat strongly between the IVG and the WCG at T0: Compared to the WCG, participants in the IVG had higher scores on life satisfaction (19.38 vs. 17.68 points) and the WHO-5 Well-Being Index (depressive symptoms; 50.50 vs. 43.44 points). If one restricts this analysis only to the participants who were interviewed at both times T0 and T1 (n = 65), the same picture emerges (In addition, we examined whether persons who participated in the two survey time points (T0, T1) differed from participants who participated in the first survey only (T0) (dropouts). Therefore, we compared data from these two groups regarding demographic and outcome variables at the time of the first survey (T0). The dropouts were slightly older on average (1.7 years). While the ratio of men to women was almost balanced in the group of those who had participated in the survey at both times (49.2 vs. 50.8%), the proportion of men in the group of dropouts was larger (65.5%). The educational level of dropouts was slightly lower than that of respondents (high/medium educational level: 55.2 vs. 64.4%), and there were no relevant differences concerning the respondents’ citizenship. Dropouts had spent, on average, 1.5 fewer years as unemployed and had slightly higher scores on job search-specific self-efficacy (0.28 points) and life satisfaction (0.35 points). The groups also showed little differences in terms of general health and well-being. The dropouts more frequently reported having good or very good general health than participants (41.4 vs. 40.0%) and scored slightly lower on the WHO-5 Well-Being Index (45.0 vs. 48.1 points). As these small differences suggest, for all variables reported here, none of the group comparisons were statistically significant. This indicates that there was no systematic bias in the results due to dropouts.