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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Toward A Client-Centered Benchmark For Self-Sufficiency: Evaluating The ‘Process’ Of Becoming Job Ready., Philip Young P. Hong May 2014

Toward A Client-Centered Benchmark For Self-Sufficiency: Evaluating The ‘Process’ Of Becoming Job Ready., Philip Young P. Hong

Philip Hong

The purpose of this study is to evaluate how service providers, clients, and graduates of a job training program define the term self-sufficiency (SS). This community-engaged, mixed method study qualitatively analyzes focus group data from each group and quantitatively examines survey data obtained from participants of the program. Findings reveal that psychological transformation as a ‘process’ represents the emic definition of SS—psychological SS—but each dimension of the concept is reflected in varying degrees by group. Provider and participant views are vastly different from the outcome-driven policy and funder definitions. Implications for benchmarking psychological SS as an empowerment-based ‘process’ measure of …


A Bottom-Up Definition Of Self-Sufficiency: Voices From Low-Income Jobseekers., Philip Young P. Hong, Vamadu A. Sheriff, Sandra R. Naeger May 2014

A Bottom-Up Definition Of Self-Sufficiency: Voices From Low-Income Jobseekers., Philip Young P. Hong, Vamadu A. Sheriff, Sandra R. Naeger

Philip Hong

Self-sufficiency (SS) is the epitome of America’s ‘reluctant’welfare state. It is generally accepted in social welfare policycircles as a concept related to independence and financialstability. Nevertheless, SS is not a term agreed upon inpractice by policymakers, researchers, or service providersand is frequently used without a clear common definition.In this sense, the purpose of this study is to explore the extentto which the top-down definition of ‘economic’ SS as thesocial policy goal is consistent with how the clients of job training programs perceive the term. Using a groundedtheory approach, a bottom-up definition of SS was derivedfrom a focus group of low-income …


The Employment Hope Scale: Measuring An Empowerment Pathway To Employment Success, Philip Young P. Hong, Sangmi Choi May 2014

The Employment Hope Scale: Measuring An Empowerment Pathway To Employment Success, Philip Young P. Hong, Sangmi Choi

Philip Hong

This chapter presents findings on revalidation of the Short Employment Hope Scale (EHS- 14) using a recently collected independent sample of 661 low-income jobseekers. This client- centered measure captures an aspect of multi-dimensional psychological self-sufficiency (SS) as a process-driven assessment tool. The original employment hope metric was constructed as a 24-item six-factor structure from its earlier conceptualization resulting from client focus group interviews. The EHS measure was initially validated using an exploratory factor analysis (EFA), resulting in a 14-item two-factor structure with Factor 1 representing ‘psychological empowerment’ and Factor 2 representing ‘goal-oriented pathways’. In the following revalidation process using a …


Validation Of The Employment Hope Scale: Measuring Psychological Self-Sufficiency Among Low-Income Jobseekers, Philip Young P. Hong, Joshua R. Polanin, Terri D. Pigott May 2014

Validation Of The Employment Hope Scale: Measuring Psychological Self-Sufficiency Among Low-Income Jobseekers, Philip Young P. Hong, Joshua R. Polanin, Terri D. Pigott

Philip Hong

The Employment Hope scale (EHS) was designed to measure the empowerment-based self-sufficiency (SS) outcome among low-income job-seeking clients. This measure captures the psychological SS dimension as opposed to the more commonly used economic SS in workforce development and employment support practice. The study validates the EHS and reports its psychometric properties. Method: An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted using an agency data from the Cara Program in Chicago, United States. The principal axis factor extraction process was employed to identify the factor structure. Results: EFA resulted in a 13-item two-factor structure with Factor 1 representing “Psychological Empowerment” and Factor …


Employment Hope: A Path To Empowering Disconnected Workers, Philip Young Hong Dec 2013

Employment Hope: A Path To Empowering Disconnected Workers, Philip Young Hong

Philip Hong

No abstract provided.