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Parents’ Participation in a Work-Based Anti-Poverty Program Can Enhance Their Children’s Future Orientation: Understanding Pathways of Influence

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Abstract

Planning and preparing for life after high school is a central developmental task of American adolescents, and may be even more critical for low-income youth who are less likely to attend a four year college. This study investigates factors that led to the effects of the New Hope Project, a work-based, anti-poverty program directed at parents on youths’ career-related thoughts and planning. The New Hope project was implemented in Milwaukee, WI, during the mid-1990s. 745 families participated (52 % male children; 56 % African American; 30 % Latino, and 15 % White non-Hispanic) and half were randomly selected to receive New Hope benefits, which included earnings supplements, job search assistance, and child and health care subsidies for 3 years. Importantly, effects on youths’ future orientation were found 8 years after the program began (5 years after benefits ended). The present study investigates what factors sustained these positive impacts over time. Results indicate that parental perceptions of reading performance mediate the effects of New Hope on youths’ cynicism about work. Additionally, parental perceptions of reading performance and youths’ educational expectations mediate the effects of New Hope on boys’ pessimism about future employment. These findings highlight the importance of youths’ educational development to their career-related thoughts and planning.

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Acknowledgments

This article is adapted from a doctoral dissertation by Kelly M. Purtell submitted to the Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The New Hope Child and Family Study was initially made possible by the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Pathways Through Middle Childhood. Grants R01 HD 36038 and 5 R24 HD 042849-04 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to the University of Texas at Austin supported data collection for the 5-year and 8-year follow-up studies. The first author would like to thank Martha Cox, Gary Henry, Deborah Jones, and Beth Kurtz-Costes, members of her dissertation committee, and Aletha Huston for their helpful suggestions.

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  1. Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, A2702, Austin, TX, 78712, USA

    Kelly M. Purtell

  2. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Vonnie C. McLoyd

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  1. Kelly M. Purtell
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  2. Vonnie C. McLoyd
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Correspondence to Kelly M. Purtell.

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Purtell, K.M., McLoyd, V.C. Parents’ Participation in a Work-Based Anti-Poverty Program Can Enhance Their Children’s Future Orientation: Understanding Pathways of Influence. J Youth Adolescence 42, 777–791 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-012-9802-7

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