About the Study

The Los Angeles Youth Well-being Study (LAYWS) seeks to understand the community and life experiences of young adult Angelenos. We have partnered with the Los Angeles County Department of Social Services (LA DPSS) for this research. We will use a combination of surveys and in-depth interviews to examine social and economic well-being outcomes. We will use the results of our study to help inform the policy decisions of Los Angeles County.

As a part of this study, we are evaluating the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services TAYportunity Guaranteed Income Program, a 3-year initiative where a cohort of low-income young adults are receiving unconditional, recurring cash transfers for the duration of the program. This is an innovative program designed to provide financial resources to young adult residents of Los Angeles County.

What is the Study?

The study is a triangulation mixed methods design including participants and non-participants of Los Angeles County social programs. There are two main components to the design:

  1. Survey Data Collection
    950 individuals were randomly selected from a list provided LA DPSS to participate in six surveys conducted over the course of 36 months. The surveys ask participants about all aspects of their life in Los Angeles including the financial and educational outcomes, psychological well-being, and life satisfaction. The surveys take participants approximately 15 minutes to complete, and they are compensated for each survey completed.

  2. Semi-Structured Qualitative Interviews
    30 individuals are being randomly selected from the survey sample to participate in in-depth longitudinal interviews over 36 months in order to gain a deep understanding of how the program impacts the lives, well-being, and futures of the participants. A longitudinal qualitative study with a subset of participants facilitates more open-ended responses and the pursuit of topics as they emerge, rather than following survey scripts. The longitudinal study design consists of six waves of in-depth interviews.

The survey data and interviews will be used to gain insight into the lives of young residents in Los Angeles County. The data we are gathering will be used in part for the evaluation of Los Angeles County’s Tayportunity Guaranteed Income pilot program, which is discussed in detail below. The program is being evaluated using a randomized controlled trial (RCT). LA DPSS accepted applications from members of their General Relief Opportunities for Work (GROW) program, which has approximately 6,000 participants. In August 2022, the research team randomly selected 300 individuals to be in the treatment group and 650 to be in the control group. Participants were informed of whether they are in the TAYGI program.

The TAYportunity Guaranteed Income Program

The TAYGI program is continuing for a period of 36 months starting in August 2022. The treatment group receives an unconditional cash transfer of $1,000 per month and has been offered the opportunity to participate in the TAYportunity program. The TAYportunity program consists of the following paths that interested participants can choose between:

  1. Transitional employment for six months, 40 hours per week, at a rate of $15/hr

  2. Apprenticeships in fields of construction, aero-space and bioscience

  3. Entrepreneurship support for participants interested in self-employment

The cash transfer size is significant – given that the average gross income of our sample is close to $25,000, the transfers comprise approximately 50% of recipients’ income. Transfers are being made through participants’ electronic benefit transfer cards. Participants have been given full information regarding the magnitude of the transfers they will be receiving, when they are receiving those transfers, and the date on which transfers will end.

The results from this evaluation will be used in an academic publication, “The Effects of Cash-Plus Programs on Young Adults: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Los Angeles County”. The pre-registration for this project can be found here.

Why is the Study Important?

The transition from adolescence to young adulthood is a difficult one in general, and for those who are in precarious life situations, the transition can be especially challenging. Despite the importance of adolescent development for success in adulthood, it is one of the least supported age groups in terms of the social safety net. Policies in the US in recent years often focus only on “working-age” adults (ages 24-55) or families with children (Baby’s First Years; Jaroszewicz et. al., 2022; Edin et. al., 2020, Vivalt et al., 2024) , excluding individuals in the 18-24 year-old age group. There are few programs which offer cash support in addition to substantial in-kind support, such as job-training or job-placement services. 

Many young adults now face the risk of being left out of the economic mainstream and getting a foothold economically, and this is true especially for the majority of young adults who lack a college degree. Young adults’ earnings have dropped 20 percent further below the national average compared to young adults’ economic position thirty years earlier (Barr and Malik 2016). Since 1995, poverty levels for young adults have grown far more than for other age groups, including children, and poverty rates for young adults are now the highest among any age group (Wimer et al. 2020). These constraints particularly affect historically disadvantaged groups such as people of color, females, housing insecure, and LGBTQ populations. These have been shown to have intergenerational effects, making it paramount to address these concerns (Alati et. al., 2018).