Thesis advisor: Laura M. O'Dwyer / As the nature of work continues to evolve and diversify in the 21st century, issues related to the attainment of high-quality work are paramount. Initially defined by the International Labour Organisation [ILO], Decent Work exists as a standard for the expected quality of work to which all should have access in modern society. Central to the definition of Decent Work is the guarantee that “women and men enjoy working experiences that are safe, allow adequate free time and rest, take into account family and social values, provide for adequate compensation in case of lost or reduced income, and permit access to adequate healthcare” (ILO, n.d.). While issues of work quality are relevant to all members of the workforce, young adults are at heightened risk of not securing work that is Decent, if they are able to secure work at all. Using nationally representative data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 [ELS:02], this study investigates Decent Work attainment among young adults through the lens of their experiences as high school students ten years prior. The Psychology of Working Theory (Duffy et al., 2016) guides this investigation, explicitly accounting for both individual (student-level) and contextual (school-level) characteristics in the prediction of future Decent Work attainment and overall employment status. Results from a series of multilevel analyses indicate that most of the variability in Decent Work attainment and employment status exists at the individual level, as opposed to the high school level. Structurally, this suggests that schools are not the primary drivers of students’ contextual influences when it comes to their work outcomes. Furthermore, the collection of school- and student-level predictors found to be significantly associated with the various facets of Decent Work and employment status varies widely from model to model. This suggests that the Psychology of Working Theory is far from a one-size-fits-all theory, and that the predictors of work attainment are highly complex. Implications for education policy and future research are discussed in Chapter 5. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.

The Psychology of Working Theory (PWT; Duffy, Blustein, Diemer, & Autin, 2016) was recently proposed as an empirically testable approach to understanding the work processes of those for whom work decisions are influenced by contextual factors and who engage in work for reasons other than satisfaction. In the present study of 285 adults, I investigated the relationships between marginalization, economic resources, work volition, career adaptability, and decent work. I found that work volition, career adaptability, and economic resources all uniquely predicted decent work. I also found that greater economic resources and lower marginalization predicted greater work volition. Economic resources and marginalization have a significant negative correlation, and work volition significantly predicted career adaptability. I failed to support the hypotheses that greater marginalization would predict lower decent work experiences when accounting for other variables and that greater economic resources and lower marginalization would predict greater career adaptability. I identified two alternative models for the data. A model with only work volition and career adaptability predicting decent work provided an adequate fit. A model with only work volition predicting career adaptability provided mixed results. This study provides empirical support for the initial propositions of the PWT, provides further evidence for the importance of contextual variables in work experiences, and identifies several key factors that lead individuals to attain a decent work experience.

Recent theoretical approaches, such the Psychology of Working perspective (Blustein, 2006; Duffy, Blustein, Diemer, & Autin, 2016), have emphasized social stratification and social justice, and quantitative assessments of these constructs are needed. The current study examines the development and initial validation of the Work and Human Needs Inventory (WAHNI), which assesses the extent to which individuals’ work meets several human needs: survival, power, autonomy, social connection, and purpose. Items were constructed and refined using content analysis of relevant constructs, expert analysis, and a pilot study. Exploratory factor analysis on a sample of 338 working adults revealed five factors: Provision, Purpose, Power, Autonomy, and Connection. Confirmatory factor analyses on a separate sample of 203 working adults supported this factor structure. Scale intercorrelations with the Differential Status Identity Scale (Brown et al., 2002), the MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status (Adler, Epel, Castellazzo, & Ickovicks, 2000), and the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (Steger, Frazier, Oishi, & Kaler, 2006) provided validity evidence. Research and practical implications for the WAHNI are discussed.

Thesis advisor: David L. Blustein / The U.S. has witnessed growing inequality, decreasing wages, and increasing instability in work over the past several decades (Krugman, 2012; Stiglitz, 2015). Moreover, evidence demonstrating work’s impact on well-being is expansive, as is its role in upward mobility and maintaining systemic oppression (Blustein, 2006; 2008; Swanson, 2012). Despite this breadth of research, studies rarely attend to community factors that shape opportunity for accessing work. As such, the present study sought to better understand relationships among individuals’ economic resources and work-related psychological constructs, in conjunction with community economic conditions and access to decent work. The present study utilized latent structural equation modeling to test several hypothesized tenets of the Psychology of Working Theory (Duffy et al., 2016) involving the latent constructs of social class, work volition, decent work and life satisfaction, in a sample of 816 working adults. Modeling contained both a composite decent work (DW) factor and its five discrete components of DW: safe working conditions, adequate compensation, access to healthcare, adequate rest and free time, and a match of organizational and social/family values (Duffy et al., 2017). Moderation analyses relied on matching individual participant data to their county-specific opportunity data, such as poverty, unemployment, and Preschool enrollment rates. Results indicated that social class indirectly predicted DW through work volition and that DW subsequently predicted life satisfaction. When examining distinct DW components in tandem with a global construct, social class predicted the healthcare and rest/time off components of DW, which further attests to the unique variance in these components. Findings underscore the powerful role economic resources play in securing DW and shaping people’s work conditions, in addition to the clear impact of DW on overall well-being. Analyses did not yield significant moderation effects for economic conditions and community opportunity in hypothesized pathways. Implications for research, practice and policy, as well as study limitations are presented. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

Thesis advisor: Laura M. O'Dwyer / As the nature of work continues to evolve and diversify in the 21st century, issues related to the attainment of high-quality work are paramount. Initially defined by the International Labour Organisation [ILO], Decent Work exists as a standard for the expected quality of work to which all should have access in modern society. Central to the definition of Decent Work is the guarantee that “women and men enjoy working experiences that are safe, allow adequate free time and rest, take into account family and social values, provide for adequate compensation in case of lost or reduced income, and permit access to adequate healthcare” (ILO, n.d.). While issues of work quality are relevant to all members of the workforce, young adults are at heightened risk of not securing work that is Decent, if they are able to secure work at all. Using nationally representative data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 [ELS:02], this study investigates Decent Work attainment among young adults through the lens of their experiences as high school students ten years prior. The Psychology of Working Theory (Duffy et al., 2016) guides this investigation, explicitly accounting for both individual (student-level) and contextual (school-level) characteristics in the prediction of future Decent Work attainment and overall employment status. Results from a series of multilevel analyses indicate that most of the variability in Decent Work attainment and employment status exists at the individual level, as opposed to the high school level. Structurally, this suggests that schools are not the primary drivers of students’ contextual influences when it comes to their work outcomes. Furthermore, the collection of school- and student-level predictors found to be significantly associated with the various facets of Decent Work and employment status varies widely from model to model. This suggests that the Psychology of Working Theory is far from a one-size-fits-all theory, and that the predictors of work attainment are highly complex. Implications for education policy and future research are discussed in Chapter 5. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.

The psychology of working theory (PWT) postulates that certain contextual and structural factors determine if individuals are able to obtain decent work, and that decent work, in turn, leads to work fulfilment and general well-being. The theory assumes that this is the case, as decent work satisfies three fundamental human needs: survival and power, social connection, and self-determination (as per the self-determination theory [SDT]). Only recently has a measure been developed to assess the satisfaction of these needs (Autin et al., under review), which means that the proposed role of need satisfaction as mediator in the link between decent work and work fulfilment/general well-being has not yet been tested empirically. This formed the objective of this study. The study employed a descriptive research design with a correlational approach. Working individuals residing in South Africa’s Western Cape province (N = 150) rated their work experiences on the decent work scale (DWS), work need satisfaction scale (WNSS), index of job satisfaction (IoJS) scale, and satisfaction with life scale (SWLS). In this sample, adequate healthcare did not fall within the decent work concept. This might be because it is common for working South Africans, especially in lower income brackets, not to receive healthcare benefits, which would thus not be expected. The autonomy and relationship aspects of the SDT self-determination need formed one instead of two separate components. This may be a reflection of low levels of trust in low-income workers, which means that autonomy is only provided if there is a positive relationship. Decent work predicted work fulfilment and individuals’ well-being and, as expected, this relationship was mediated by the fulfilment of the hypothesised needs (survival and power, social connection, SDT relationship + autonomy, and SDT competence). The study thus indicates the applicability of the PWT in the South African context. Organisations should thus be encouraged to provide employees with decent work, as this, in turn, will likely increase employees’ work fulfilment and general wellbeing.

Thesis advisor: David L. Blustein / This study aimed to illuminate a piece of complexity behind vocational identity development in emerging adulthood. While identity development involves changes across various areas within one’s life, the establishment of a vocational identity is thought to be among the most vital and daunting tasks to manage during the transition from adolescence to adulthood (e.g., Erikson, 1959). For those fortunate enough to experience positive developments in this aspect of their identity, a plethora of positive life- and career outcomes are associated with them (Diemer & Blustein, 2007; Hirschi, 2011a; Hirschi, 2011c; Klotz et al., 2014; Luyckx et al., 2010). While this form of identity development is historically understood to be among the most challenging, evolving changes in “macrostructural conditions” (i.e., technological innovation and AI) have further complicated things, leading some to feel discouraged from taking an “active engagement in the exploratory process,” likely followed by a delay in making an occupational choice (Mortimer, 2002, p. 442). Despite the prominent role that establishing a vocational identity has in a young person’s maturation process (Erikson, 1959), this phenomenon has yet to be introduced and examined in a modern career development theory, and more specifically, within psychology of working theory (PWT; Duffy et al., 2016). The current study postulates that both original and new PWT career variables: economic constraints, marginalization, work volition, career adaptability, and psychological flexibility, interact and contribute to the overall development of an emerging adult’s vocational identity. The purpose of the present study was to demarcate how specific paths of PWT (Duffy et al., 2016) were connected to vocational identity development for those within emerging adulthood (ranging in ages 18-25). Broadly, it was hypothesized that work volition and career adaptability would predict vocational identity development and that these relationships would be moderated by psychological flexibility. Additional exploratory models, which placed psychological flexibility in two other locations, were also assessed. These relationships were examined by surveying 283 emerging adults via an online survey tool. These participants responded to questions about their vocational identity, levels of psychological flexibility, work volition, career adaptability, experiences of macro-level barriers, and demographic characteristics. Data were analyzed using hierarchical linear regression. Findings revealed that the primary hypothesized model describing work volition and career adaptability to predict vocational identity was an excellent fit to the data. Additionally, the model results indicate that psychological flexibility did not moderate these relationships. However, it does play a significant role in overall vocational identity development, career adaptability, and work volition independent of other variables. Among demographic variables, SES differences were found within the sample. These results are discussed and grounded in their unique contribution to the existing literature on vocational identity development, psychological flexibility, and career development. Theoretical, policy, and practical implications are discussed. Future directions and limitations of the study are also considered. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

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