TY - JOUR
T1 - Committed to work but vulnerable
T2 - Self-perceptions and mental health in NEET 18-year olds from a contemporary British cohort
AU - Goldman-Mellor, Sidra
AU - Caspi, Avshalom
AU - Arseneault, Louise
AU - Ajala, Nifemi
AU - Ambler, Antony
AU - Danese, Andrea
AU - Fisher, Helen
AU - Hucker, Abigail
AU - Odgers, Candice
AU - Williams, Teresa
AU - Wong, Chloe
AU - Moffitt, Terrie E.
N1 - © 2015 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
PY - 2016/2
Y1 - 2016/2
N2 - BackgroundLabour market disengagement among youths has lasting negative economic and social consequences, yet is poorly understood. We compared four types of work-related self-perceptions, as well as vulnerability to mental health and substance abuse problems, among youths not in education, employment or training (NEET) and among their peers.MethodsParticipants were from the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) longitudinal study, a nationally representative UK cohort of 2,232 twins born in 1994–1995. We measured commitment to work, job-search effort, professional/technical skills, ‘soft’ skills (e.g. teamwork, decision-making, communication), optimism about getting ahead, and mental health and substance use disorders at age 18. We also examined childhood mental health.ResultsAt age 18, 11.6% of participants were NEET. NEET participants reported themselves as committed to work and searching for jobs with greater diligence than their non-NEET peers. However, they reported fewer ‘soft’ skills (B = −0.98, p < .001) and felt less optimistic about their likelihood of getting ahead in life (B = −2.41, p < .001). NEET youths also had higher rates of concurrent mental health and substance abuse problems, but these did not explain the relationship with work-related self-perceptions. Nearly 60% of NEET (vs. 35% of non-NEET) youths had already experienced ≥1 mental health problem in childhood/adolescence. Associations of NEET status with concurrent mental health problems were independent of pre-existing mental health vulnerability.ConclusionsOur findings indicate that while NEET is clearly an economic and mental health issue, it does not appear to be a motivation issue. Alongside skills, work-related self-perceptions and mental health problems may be targets for intervention and service provision among this high-risk population.
AB - BackgroundLabour market disengagement among youths has lasting negative economic and social consequences, yet is poorly understood. We compared four types of work-related self-perceptions, as well as vulnerability to mental health and substance abuse problems, among youths not in education, employment or training (NEET) and among their peers.MethodsParticipants were from the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) longitudinal study, a nationally representative UK cohort of 2,232 twins born in 1994–1995. We measured commitment to work, job-search effort, professional/technical skills, ‘soft’ skills (e.g. teamwork, decision-making, communication), optimism about getting ahead, and mental health and substance use disorders at age 18. We also examined childhood mental health.ResultsAt age 18, 11.6% of participants were NEET. NEET participants reported themselves as committed to work and searching for jobs with greater diligence than their non-NEET peers. However, they reported fewer ‘soft’ skills (B = −0.98, p < .001) and felt less optimistic about their likelihood of getting ahead in life (B = −2.41, p < .001). NEET youths also had higher rates of concurrent mental health and substance abuse problems, but these did not explain the relationship with work-related self-perceptions. Nearly 60% of NEET (vs. 35% of non-NEET) youths had already experienced ≥1 mental health problem in childhood/adolescence. Associations of NEET status with concurrent mental health problems were independent of pre-existing mental health vulnerability.ConclusionsOur findings indicate that while NEET is clearly an economic and mental health issue, it does not appear to be a motivation issue. Alongside skills, work-related self-perceptions and mental health problems may be targets for intervention and service provision among this high-risk population.
KW - Adolescence
KW - Depression
KW - Employment
KW - Longitudinal studies
KW - Mental health
KW - Self-perceptions
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84940475263&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/jcpp.12459
DO - 10.1111/jcpp.12459
M3 - Article
C2 - 26791344
AN - SCOPUS:84940475263
SN - 0021-9630
VL - 57
SP - 196
EP - 203
JO - Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
JF - Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
IS - 2
ER -