Career self-efficacy and plans for the future in a welfare recipient sample
Abstract
This dissertation investigated the relationship between certain demographic variables, self-efficacy beliefs, and planning behavior in a sample of welfare recipients who volunteered for the study. While efficacy itself and career-oriented behaviors have been widely studied, the current investigation used as its subjects Wisconsin participants in the welfare reform program initiated in 1997. The welfare reform program places stringent work requirements and limits time benefits for recipients, making planning for self-sufficiency essential. Efficacy beliefs and planning behavior among welfare reform recipients have not previously been systematically studied. To investigate the role of demographic variables and efficacy on planning processes, analyses using data gathered from 184 W-2 recipient subjects were performed. Preliminary analysis revealed significant correlations among many of the demographic and test variables. Exploratory analysis investigating the relationship between familial use of public assistance and current receipt of similar benefits provided significant results as well lending support to previous studies that explored the existence of a social component to welfare use. Multiple regression analyses identified both marital status and level of participation in W-2 as predictors of both efficacy and planning behavior. Efficacy also predicted planning scores. The combined effects of the demographic variables and efficacy scores were not more predictive of planning scores than either individually as had been hypothesized. The current study provides a descriptive and meaningful look at self-efficacy and planning processes. These findings have implications for research as well as for intervention programs that may have potential in the long run to affect participation in public assistance programs. Limitations, research and intervention implications, and directions for the future were discussed.
This paper has been withdrawn.