My Self-Esteem a Mess Is Refrain for Spain’s Unemployed

Four years ago, Wendy Atkinson Navarro, 36, had a job, a husband and a home. Now, she is divorced, out of work and living with her mother near Madrid, a casualty of Spain’s recession that has driven unemployment above 24 percent and is unnerving young people.

“My self-esteem is a mess,” Atkinson said. “My nephew is 15 years old, and the only difference between him and me is I have kids. That’s how I feel.”