Psychological Self-Sufficiency: An Empowerment-Based Theory for Workforce Training and Adult Education

This chapter focuses on low-income workers and their job-seeking efforts in health professions during an economic downturn, when the health care sector experienced labor shortages or was in high demand for quality workers. Prior research on workforce development has been overly outcome driven and has given relatively less attention to the process of building psychological strength as one reaches the economic self-sufficiency (ESS) outcome (Harvey, P. Hong, and Kwaza 2010; P. Hong 2013). Little is known about what psychological prerequisites are needed to achieve desired economic outcomes when life risks and resilience counterbalance the path to success. To fill this