Can a Participant-Centered Approach to Setting and Pursuing Goals Help Adults with Low Incomes Become Economically Stable? Impacts of Four Employment Coaching Programs 21 Months after Enrollment

Self-regulation skills are the skills needed to finish tasks, stay organized, and control emotions, and they are critical in finding and maintaining employment. Poverty and other chronic stressors can hinder the development and use of these skills, but coaching can promote self-regulation skills and help adults with low incomes become economically secure. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report presents findings from a study of four employment coaching programs conducted as part of the Evaluation of Employment Coaching for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Related Populations. The report presents estimates of impacts of coaching on participants’ self-regulation skills, employment, earnings, self-sufficiency, and other measures of personal and family well-being throughout the 21 months after enrollment.