Can a Participant-Centered Approach to Setting and Pursuing Goals Help Adults with Low Incomes Become Economically Stable?

Research suggests that the stresses and uncertainty of poverty can be overwhelming, leaving less mental bandwidth for effective development and use of self-regulation skills, including those that are critical in finding and maintaining employment. Examples of self-regulation skills relevant to employment include: the persistence needed to keep at a task despite setbacks; the time management skills that make it possible to consistently show up to work on time; and the emotional understanding and regulation to deal productively with co-workers. Research suggests that coaching can promote self-regulation skills and hence may be a way to help adults with low incomes become economically secure. For this reason, TANF and other employment programs that serve adults with low incomes have been implementing employment coaching.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether coaching is effective in improving participants’ goal pursuit and other self-regulation skills, employment, earnings, self-sufficiency, and other measures of personal and family well-being.