Personal Empowerment, Social Capital and Self-Esteem among Underprivileged Adults in a Lifelong Learning Program

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UMBC Theses and Dissertations

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2017-01-01

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dissertations
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Psychology

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Psychology

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This item may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. It is made available by UMBC for non-commercial research and education. For permission to publish or reproduce, please see http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/specoll/repro.php or contact Special Collections at speccoll(at)umbc.edu
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Abstract

Social issues including poverty, incarceration, drug addiction and mental disorders are prevalent in Israel, the country where the current study took place. As a result, large subpopulations are limited to fewer opportunities to participate in, benefit from and contribute to society. Human-capital and social-capital development programs show promising results in increasing empowerment, social capital and self-esteem among such marginalized populations. Research indicates that demographic/background variables, as well as program engagement level, can have an impact on the results of such programs. The current study examined the influence of a lifelong learning program called "Access for All" among 417 underprivileged adults. The program opens the "ivory gates" of Israeli universities to disempowered individuals who participate in courses in applied subjects such as medicine, business, psychology and law. Participants in the program were hypothesized to show gains in personal empowerment, social capital, and self-esteem. The results showed partial support, indicating an increase in personal empowerment, but did not find evidence of change in social capital or self-esteem. Gender was not a predictor of program outcome as hypothesized. Participants referred from welfare agencies were hypothesized to benefit more compared to participants from prisons and drugs rehabilitation programs. This hypothesis was supported with regards to change in relation with partner, but not for any of the other outcomes. Contrary to hypothesis, individuals referred from welfare agencies reported lower levels of knowledge use than individuals referred from other types of agencies. Lastly, the hypothesis that participants who engaged more in the program would benefit to a greater extent was partially supported. Specifically, higher levels of social support were significantly related to a positive change in relation with children and changes in life domains. Higher group affiliation was also positively related to changes in life domains. Future research and program development efforts are needed to address the challenges in defining, measuring and facilitating empowerment, both as a program process and an outcome.