Can a Participant-Centered Approach to Setting and Pursuing Goals Help Adults with Low Incomes Become Economically Stable? Impacts of Four Employment Coaching Programs 21 Months after Enrollment

Poverty and other chronic stressors can hinder the development and use of the self-regulation skills—the skills needed to finish tasks, stay organized, and control emotions—that are critical in finding and maintaining employment. Examples of self-regulation skills relevant to employment include, among others: 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 help adults with low incomes become economically secure.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether coaching is effective in promoting the use of self-regulation skills and eventually improves the employment outcomes and economic security of TANF recipients and other adults with low incomes.

The study found that:

• Two of the four coaching programs improved self-regulation skills during the first 9 or 12 months after study enrollment, and the impacts on self-regulation skills of one of these programs persisted through the 21-month follow-up period. 
• During the first 9 or 12 months after study enrollment, none of the programs had statistically significant impacts on average monthly self-reported earnings. Additional Bayesian analysis of self-reported earnings suggested that impacts were small and likely positive for three of the four programs. During the rest of the 21-month follow-up period, there continued to be no significant positive impacts on self-reported earnings for any program. Additional Bayesian analysis suggests that during the rest of the 21-month follow-up period impacts were small and likely positive for two of the four programs, likely near zero for one program, and small but likely negative for one program.
• None of the programs had positive impacts on earnings reported to an Unemployment Insurance agency, and Bayesian analysis suggests these impacts were likely near zero for all programs. One of the four coaching programs reduced economic hardship during the first 9 months after study enrollment, but none of the four programs reduced hardship over the 21 months after study enrollment.
• In the 21 months after study enrollment, none of the programs reduced the amounts of TANF cash benefits or other public assistance participants received. 
• The programs had larger impacts for participants with fewer than two children than they did for participants with two or more children. There is no evidence that impacts consistently differed by participants’ other characteristics. 
• There was little evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic affected impacts for three of the programs, but there was evidence that the impacts on earnings changed in response to the pandemic for one program.

Between February 2017 and November 2019, about 4,300 adults who were eligible for one of the four employment coaching programs and who consented to participate in the evaluation were randomly assigned either to (1) a program group that had access to employment coaching, or (2) a control group that did not have access to employment coaching but could receive other services available in the community. In the study of the Goal4 It! program, the control group received traditional TANF case management while the program group received coaching. In the study of FaDSS, all program and control group members received TANF case management, and the program group received coaching in addition to case management. In the studies of LIFT and MyGoals, the control groups received no services and the program group received coaching.

The effectiveness of each employment coaching program was assessed based on differences in average outcomes between program and control group members. To estimate the impacts of employment coaching, the study used data from (1) a baseline survey or form administered to study participants at the time of study enrollment, (2) follow-up surveys administered to study participants approximately 9 to 12 months after study enrollment, and again approximately 21 months after study enrollment, (3) administrative employment and Unemployment Insurance records from the National Directory of New Hires, and (4) administrative records from state and local agencies on participation in public assistance programs.

Quinn Moore, April Wu, Tim Kautz, Christina Kent, Sheena McConnell, Nicardo McInnis, Ankita Patnaik, and Owen Schochet (2024) “Can a Participant-Centered Approach to Setting and Pursuing Goals Help Adults with Low Incomes Become Economically Stable? Impacts of Four Employment Coaching Programs 21 Months after Enrollment.” OPRE Report #2024-061. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.