Home care aides provide critical support to a rapidly growing older adult population, yettheir occupation is marked by generally low wages, unstable hours, a lack of benefits, and highturnover rates. Client loss, whether due to death, hospitalization, or transfer to another facility, iscommon and introduces inherent precarity in the job. Drawing on Conservation of Resources(COR) theory, this study examined whether client loss predicts changes in home care aides’financial insecurity, burnout, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions over time.Using Prolific survey data across three time points from home care aides in the UnitedStates, conditional latent growth curve models were estimated for each outcome. Modelsindicated substantial between-person differences in baseline levels, with little average changeover time, except for a modest decline in job satisfaction, and between-person differences inchange trajectories for intentions to leave. Contrary to hypotheses, neither time-specific norcumulative client loss predicted within-person change in the study outcomes. Additionalindicators of loss (i.e., number of clients lost, hours lost, and income loss) were also notassociated with outcomes.Baseline organizational and supervisor support, however, demonstrated consistentpositive main effects. Across all time points, organizational support was associated with lowerturnover intentions and higher job satisfaction, while supervisor support was positivelyassociated with job satisfaction. Older workers reported higher job satisfaction and lowerintentions to leave than younger workers, and higher hourly pay and income were associatedwith lower financial insecurity.Findings suggest that instances of client loss are not a primary driver of worker well-being in home care. Instead, workers appear to operate within chronically resource-constrainedenvironments, where specific loss events (i.e., client loss) may have limited incremental impact,perhaps if workers are conditioned to such loss. Structural conditions, including wages andincome, appear to play a more central role in shaping well-being. These results complicate CORtheory by highlighting how resource loss processes unfold differently in precarious occupationalcontexts and underscore the importance of structural reforms to strengthen economic, supervisor,and organizational supports for workers.
