A study of the association between commitment to the work ethic and social welfare program choices

This research project was an empirical study of a number of variables and their relationship to commitment to the work ethic among a systematically selected sample of middle class professionals, some of whom worked with the poor (social workers and public defenders) and some of whom did not (computer scientists). Membership rosters of national professional organizations were used to select the sample. An original mail survey, the Work and Poverty Survey, was used to gather data on the respondents' commitments to the work ethic, knowledge about the poor, perceptions of the poor, and attitudes toward a variety of social welfare programs (both individualistically and structurally oriented). Of the 230 returned questionnaires (out of a sample of 427), 202 were useable. Composite variables were constructed from Likert-type rating scales to measure several key variables. The data were subjected to a number of statistical tests, using appropriate subprograms of SPSS. Frequency distributions, Cronbach's alpha, factor analysis, multiple regressions and Pearson correlation coefficients were utilized and the data analyzed in testing the eight stated hypotheses.

Substantial majorities from each professional group endorsed the work ethic. Attitudes toward a variety of social welfare programs were the most significant predictors of commitment to the work ethic. The respondents were not knowledgeable about the poor. Both knowledge of and perception of the poor were inversely correlated with commitment to the work ethic. Respondents seemed to support both structurally and individualistically oriented social welfare programs for the poor.