The Mediating Effect of Grit between Employment Hope and Economic Self-Sufficiency Among Low-Income Jobseekers

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between employment hope, grit, and economic self-sufficiency. Workforce development research has recently identified employment hope as a significant variable that affects economic self-sufficiency (Hong, Hodge, & Choi, 2015; Hong, Lewis, & Choi, 2014; Hong, Stokar, & Choi, 2015). Similarly, recent studies in positive psychology has found that grit contributes to success in daily living including academic success and work performance (Strayhor, 2014; Suzuki, Tamesue, Asahi, & Ishikawa, 2015). Grit has to do with the personal traits that make people pursue a primary goal persistently whether they have barriers to achieve their goal (Duckworth & Gross, 2014) but it is investigated primarily among school-aged children in light of academic success. Less is known about grit as a predictor of career success, particularly among low-income jobseekers. Therefore, in order to fill this gap in the literature, this study examined the relationship between grit, employment hope, and economic self-sufficiency.

Methods: This study used data collected from a large social service organization in Chicago, IL. Using a sample of 1,170 low-income jobseekers, this study investigated how employment hope and grit affect economic self-sufficiency. This study used the Short Grit Scale (Duckworth & Quinn, 2009), Employment Hope Scale (Hong, Polanin, & Pigott, 2012), and Economic Self-Sufficiency (ESS) Scale (Gowdy & Perlmutter, 1993). Using STATA 14, a structural equation model analysis was conducted to test the hypothesized relationships.

Results: A model was estimated with grit as a mediator between employment hope and ESS, and the results showed an acceptable fit (𝒳²=227.23; df =32, p=.000; RMSEA=.072; CFI=.967; TLI=.953).  The direct path between employment hope and ESS was found to be significant (.136, p=000), and the indirect paths from employment hope to grit (.121, p=.000), and from grit to ESS (.336, p=.008) were found to be significant. Therefore, the findings indicate that employment hope significantly affects ESS and grit positively mediates this relationship. The results suggest that grit is a partial mediator between employment hope and ESS among low-income jobseekers.

Implications: This study can draw from the findings that focusing on employment hope as the key variable representing psychological self-sufficiency can support the pathway to ESS. While employment hope may generate its own ESS outcomes on its own, adding grit would help strengthen this effect to impact ESS. Social workers may be able to use the perseverance and passion of grit to fading employment hope against newly emerging obstacles that low-income jobseekers face as they move into employment. Furthermore, improving psychological self-sufficiency and grit together could directly affect measurable outcomes including getting a stable job and retaining them.  Furthermore, social workers could help channel employment hope through grit to not only affect ESS but also client’s success in everyday life including personal decisions and academic or work performance.