Scoping review protocol: Using a cross-sector approach to define economic mobility

Abstract

Economic mobility (“mobility”) refers to how a person’s economic well-being changes over a lifetime, spanning across sectors related to workforce, education, health, housing, infrastructure, and place. Many programs define mobility narrowly, resulting in fragmented evidence across sectors. Gaps related to data silos, lack of consistent metrics, and lack of standardized definitions aligned with community priorities for mobility limit meaningful comparisons of cross-sector initiatives designed to improve mobility outcomes. In response to these gaps, the current scoping review protocol describes a planned review that will examine and map the existing evidence base on economic mobility.
This scoping review protocol outlines procedures using guidelines from the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) statement. The protocol describes a scoping review informed by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) and engagement with state and local organizational representatives involved in economic mobility initiatives. Review results will inform a framework that can be adapted across contexts to assess, compare, and track the community-specific conditions and pathways that shape mobility over time.