Bridging the social class capital gap: A psychological intervention in the newcomer adjustment context

Motivated by observations that workers from lower social class backgrounds often experience lower career outcomes even after securing desirable jobs, we adopted an abductive approach-combining theory (the newcomer personal capital framework) with qualitative evidence from open-ended accounts (Study 1)-to identify three challenges these workers face after joining organizations as newcomers: limited cultural capital (i.e., institutional knowledge), lower social capital (i.e., social self-efficacy), and lower psychological capital (i.e., distress tolerance). Furthermore, in Study 1, we developed and tested a psychological intervention targeting these challenges and found that it effectively addressed them. In Studies 2 and 3, both preregistered field experiments, we deductively tested whether addressing these challenges would enhance key downstream outcomes. Indeed, for newcomers from lower social class backgrounds, the intervention improved both the experience of the work itself (job engagement) and the organizational social environment (social integration), which, in turn, led to better job performance-although it did not reduce turnover intentions. The intervention offers a scalable, low-cost method to promote the adjustment and career success of upwardly mobile workers from lower social class backgrounds. We discuss implications for understanding sources of class achievement gaps and for the importance of the newcomer adjustment process in promoting socioeconomic mobility in organizations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).