Effects of a Two-Generation Human Capital Program on Low-Income Parents' Education, Employment, and Psychological Wellbeing

• Published in: Journal of family psychology 2019-06, Vol.33 (4), p.433-443
• Main Authors: Chase-Lansdale, P. Lindsay, Sabol, Terri J, Sommer, Teresa Eckrich, Chor, Elise, Cooperman, Allison W, Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Yoshikawa, Hirokazu, King, Christopher, Morris, Amanda
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Certification; Child; Children; Early Intervention (Education); Education; Education - organization & administration; Employment; Employment - statistics & numerical data; Employment Status; Families & family life; Family; Female; Health services; Human; Human Capital; Humans; Identity; Income; Labor force; Low income groups; Lower Income Level; Male; Optimism; Parent Training; Parental Occupation; Parenthood education; Parents & parenting; Parents - education; Poverty; Program Development; Project Head Start; Psychological well being; Quasi-experimental methods; Recruits; Self-efficacy; Social Welfare; Test Construction; Vocational Guidance - organization & administration; Well Being
• ISSN: 0893-3200; 1939-1293
• DOI: 10.1037/fam0000517

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.