Effects of a two-generation human capital program on low-income parents' education, employment, and psychological wellbeing

P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale; Terri J. Sabol; Teresa Eckrich Sommer; Elise Chor; Allison W. Cooperman; Jeanne Brooks-Gunn; Hirokazu Yoshikawa; Christopher King; Amanda Morris

doi:10.1037/fam0000517

Effects of a two-generation human capital program on low-income parents' education, employment, and psychological wellbeing

P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale^*, Terri J. Sabol, Teresa Eckrich Sommer, Elise Chor, Allison W. Cooperman, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Christopher King, Amanda Morris

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

33 Scopus citations

Abstract

Two-generation human capital programs for families provide education and workforce training for parents simultaneously with education for children. This study uses a quasi-experimental design to examine the effects of a model two-generation program, CareerAdvance, which recruits parents of children enrolled in Head Start into a health care workforce training program. After 1 year, CareerAdvance parents demonstrated higher rates of certification and employment in the health care sector than did matched-comparison parents whose children were also in Head Start. More important, there was no effect on parents' short-term levels of income or employment across all sectors. CareerAdvance parents also experienced psychological benefits, reporting higher levels of self-efficacy and optimism, in addition to stronger career identity compared with the matched-comparison group. Notably, even as CareerAdvance parents juggled the demands of school, family, and employment, they did not report higher levels of material hardship or stress compared with the matched-comparison group. These findings are discussed in terms of the implications of a family perspective for human capital programs.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	433-443
Number of pages	11
Journal	Journal of Family Psychology
Volume	33
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000517
State	Published - Jun 2019

Funding

This research was supported by the Health Profession Opportunity Grant (HPOG; Grant 90FX00100) and the Health Profession Opportunity Grant-University Partnership (HPOG-UP; Grant 90PH0020) from the Administration of Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Ser- vices; the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (Grant P3020014); and the Foundation for Child Development (Grant Northwestern 06-2014). Parts of the results of the current article were presented at the Administration for Children and Families’ National Research Conference on Early Childhood (2018) and the Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (2017). Moreover, we have prepared a research brief, in partnership with Ascend at the AspenInstitute,whichissharedontheirwebsite:https://ascend.aspeninstitute .org/resources/cap-tulsa-careeradvance-impact-analysis-2/. The data used in this article can be obtained beginning 6 months after publication through 3 years hence from the author (P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale; [email protected]).

Keywords

Education and training
Low-income parents
Two-generation programs
Workforce development

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Psychology

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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abstract = "Two-generation human capital programs for families provide education and workforce training for parents simultaneously with education for children. This study uses a quasi-experimental design to examine the effects of a model two-generation program, CareerAdvance, which recruits parents of children enrolled in Head Start into a health care workforce training program. After 1 year, CareerAdvance parents demonstrated higher rates of certification and employment in the health care sector than did matched-comparison parents whose children were also in Head Start. More important, there was no effect on parents' short-term levels of income or employment across all sectors. CareerAdvance parents also experienced psychological benefits, reporting higher levels of self-efficacy and optimism, in addition to stronger career identity compared with the matched-comparison group. Notably, even as CareerAdvance parents juggled the demands of school, family, and employment, they did not report higher levels of material hardship or stress compared with the matched-comparison group. These findings are discussed in terms of the implications of a family perspective for human capital programs.",

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AU - Cooperman, Allison W.

AU - Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne

AU - Yoshikawa, Hirokazu

AU - King, Christopher

AU - Morris, Amanda

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Effects of a two-generation human capital program on low-income parents' education, employment, and psychological wellbeing

Abstract

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Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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