Employment and Welfare-to-Work Training Initiatives: The Effects of Pre-Training Attitudes on Job-Search Behavior, Employment Status, and Job-Search Intended Effort
| dc.contributor.advisor | Goldstein, Irwin L | en_US |
| dc.contributor.author | Bittle-Patton, Sylvia | en_US |
| dc.contributor.department | Psychology | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2004-05-31T19:37:01Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2004-05-31T19:37:01Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2003-12-10 | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | For over a decade, the issues of welfare reform and unemployment have been high priorities at the national level. Surveys were administered to participants in three training agencies to examine individual pre-training attitudinal and behavioral variables, including self-efficacy, employment commitment, and unemployment negativity. The study then examined the relationship between these variables and post-training job-search behavior, employment status, and job-search intended effort of unemployed trainees. The behavioral plasticity hypothesis was also explored in conjunction with the variables of general and specific self-efficacy, employment commitment, and unemployment negativity. Hierarchical regression analyses of data from 121 participants revealed that pre-training specific self-efficacy and unemployment negativity were both significant predictors of post-training job-search behavior and frequency. Thus, trainees with higher levels of pre-training specific self-efficacy and unemployment negativity also reported more varied and frequent post-training job-search behavior. Further, results of logistic regression analysis indicated that unemployment negativity was a significant predictor of post-training employment status. Specifically, trainees with high initial levels of unemployment negativity were twice as likely to find post-training employment. Although not hypothesized, the demographic variables of marital status, reasons for unemployment, and income also significantly predicted post-training employment status. More specifically, trainees who were single had a greater likelihood of post-training job placement in comparison to married trainees. Further, respondents who were unemployed because of a disability or other health-related issue were less likely to find employment after training than their counterparts. In addition, trainees with higher levels of income were more likely to find post-training employment than those with lower income levels. The behavioral plasticity effect, however, was not supported with either predictor variable when job-search behavior and frequency was used as the outcome variable. Post-hoc analysis revealed pre-training employment commitment as a significant predictor of post-training employment status. Specifically, participants with higher levels of pre-training employment commitment were almost three-times more likely to find employment after training than their counterparts. Post-hoc analyses also found that both specific self-efficacy and unemployment negativity mediate the relationship between employment commitment and post-training job-search behavior and frequency. Several implications of the study are discussed and areas for future research are explored. | en_US |
| dc.format.extent | 1393579 bytes | |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1903/57 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.relation.isAvailableAt | Digital Repository at the University of Maryland | en_US |
| dc.relation.isAvailableAt | University of Maryland (College Park, Md.) | en_US |
| dc.subject.pqcontrolled | Psychology, Industrial | en_US |
| dc.title | Employment and Welfare-to-Work Training Initiatives: The Effects of Pre-Training Attitudes on Job-Search Behavior, Employment Status, and Job-Search Intended Effort | en_US |
| dc.type | Dissertation | en_US |
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