This study investigated the digital existence of the food bank users in a university town in Texas, and subsequently, aligned with the research's pragmatic focus, the researchers designed a training model for these food bank users. Two research questions guided the study: What are the digital existence levels of the food bank users, and what…

Family training, in which providers coach parents to use intervention strategies with their child, is considered evidence-based and best practice for families of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Parents generally value family training, but this service is underutilized in community-settings and many parents report it as an unmet need.…

Low-income students struggle with resources while trying to achieve future financial stability. As colleges explore ways to support students, one solution is integration with public benefits. This study focuses on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), a program that offers cash assistance to low-income adults with children. Statistical…

Background: School-based parent involvement is associated with child academic outcomes, positive behaviors, and social skills. Research on school-based parent involvement among low-income mothers is limited and even less understood for low-income mothers who receive financial housing assistance. Objective: This study examined the association…

The purpose of the current study was to conceptually replicate a multi-indicator construct of economic hardship in a national sample of adolescents with and without disabilities (N = 9,230). Using data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2012 (NLTS2012), the latent construct economic hardship was confirmed from six theoretically…

Postsecondary education is often out of reach for students with low incomes, many of whom receive little or no financial support from their family for school and who have significant unmet need, even after financial aid. Students of color (approximately 40 percent of all college students) face additional systemic barriers that hinder access and…

In 2010, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded the first round of five-year Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG 1.0) to 32 organizations in 23 states; five were tribal organizations. The purpose of the HPOG Program is to provide education and training to Temporary…

We estimate long-run impacts to the Pathways to Education program, a comprehensive set of coaching, tutoring, group activities and financial incentives offered to disadvantaged students beginning in Grade 9. High school administrative records are matched to income tax records to follow individuals up to the age of 28, even when they leave the…

This brief summarizes findings on strategies for helping hard-to-employ populations--especially cash welfare assistance clients and disadvantaged parents with child support obligations--become employed. It begins with an overview of the unique needs of these two groups, followed by a review of strategies that have successfully boosted their…

Self-compassion has been shown to bolster resilience (Leary, Tate, Adams, Batts Allen, & Hancock, 2007), intrinsic motivation (Neff, Hseih, & Dejitthirat, 2005), and a general sense of well-being (Arimitsu & Hofman, 2015) as students cope with academic and life stressors. While research has begun exploring gender as a factor for…

This qualitative study explored how recipients of means-tested government assistance programs, who are enrolled in community colleges, make decisions about voting, and how structural factors affect their decision to vote. It used a grounded theory approach to generate knowledge about why some recipients of means-tested assistance vote and others…

The first two chapters of my dissertation paper detail the role of work-inducing welfare policies on single mother's human capital formation. These chapters focus on the two most important work-inducing policies that have transformed the welfare program in the United States from an out-work to an in-work assistance program: (1) welfare reform in…

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the nation's most important anti-hunger program, providing food assistance to people with low incomes, including postsecondary students, workers, children, people with disabilities, seniors, and many more. The needs of college students have changed drastically over time, requiring more…

The Minnesota Subsidized and Transitional Employment Demonstration (MSTED) is testing the effectiveness of subsidized employment for individuals enrolled in the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP), Minnesota's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, who were unable to find employment after participating in the state's existing…

Financial knowledge is critical for making sound decisions that foster financial health and protect consumers from predation. A widely-used tool for building this capability is financial education. Yet evidence suggests that conventional approaches which teach concepts in classroom-style settings are ineffective and expensive at scale, especially…