Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

In the United States, half of all low-income parents of young children have attained no more than a high school degree (Jiang, Granja, & Koball, 2017). As a result, many low-income parents struggle to meet the demands of the 21st century economy (Haskins, Garfinkel, & McLanahan, 2014). Most education and workforce training programs for low-income parents implemented decades ago were largely ineffective (e.g., New Chance, Teen Parent Demonstration, and LEAP; Granger et al., 2006). There has been moderate success of more recent job training programs for low-income adults, although we do not know their effectiveness for parents specifically.

Two-generation human capital programs take a family systems perspective and strategically combine education and training for parents with early childhood education programs like Head Start for children. Head Start provides high-quality learning opportunities for children while also addressing many of the barriers to educational progress that low-income parents face, especially inadequate access to reliable child care and lack of social support (Gardner, Brooks-Gunn, & Chase-Lansdale, 2107). One example of a two-generation human capital program using Head Start as a platform is CareerAdvance^®, the program under study. The Community Action Project of Tulsa County (CAP Tulsa), a large anti-poverty agency, launched CareerAdvance^® to offer healthcare training program designed for the parents of Head Start children. CareerAdvance^® also offers supportive services, including stackable training, coaching support, peer partner meetings, and wrap around childcare.

Past research has found positive short-term effects of CareerAdvance^® on parents (Chase-Lansdale, et al., in press). After one year, CareerAdvance^® parents had higher rates of certification and employment in the health care sector, and they reported higher levels of optimism, commitment to work and careers, and self-efficacy than did matched-comparison parents. CareerAdvance^® parents’ earnings were lower over the course of the year, but there were no differences in reports of material hardship or stress between the two groups. The current study explains why these effects may have occurred. It remains an open question how and why CareerAdvance^® parents had greater improvements in human capital and psychological well-being than matched comparison parents.

We take advantage of longitudinal, in-depth interviews with parents in our mixed-method study of CareerAdvance^® to explain the program’s short-term effects. The main study uses a quasi-experimental design and involves a sample of 338 parents (162 CareerAdvance^® and 176 matched comparison). The current study sample includes 39 study participants (21 CareerAdvance^® and 18 matched comparison parents) and compares experiences individually and by treatment status. Our strategy involved multi-level coding of transcribed interview data and inductive and deductive analysis. We have identified two main themes: (1) Head Start provides an effective platform to support parents’ skill development, certification, and career employment; and (2) fostering parents’ social capital through a combination of peers, coaches, and Head Start family support seems to play a key role in helping parents balance the demands of school, family, and work and develop a career-going identity. Results suggest why pairing workforce training for parents with high-quality Head Start programs benefits parents’ education and careers.