Living in the shadow of unemployment -an unhealthy life situation: a qualitative study of young people from leaving school until early adult life

Abstract

BackgroundDespite the magnitude of youth unemployment there is a lack of studies, which explore the relations between health experiences and labour market position in various contexts. The aim of this paper was to analyse health experiences among young people in NEET (not in education, employment or training) in relation to labour market position from leaving school until early adult life.MethodThe population consists of everyone (six women, eight men) who became unemployed directly after leaving compulsory school in a town in Northern Sweden. Repeated personal interviews were performed from age 16 until age 33. The interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis.ResultsHealth experiences can be viewed as a contextual process, related to the different phases of leaving school, entering the labour market, becoming unemployed and becoming employed. Perceived relief and hope were related to leaving compulsory school, while entering the labour market was related to setbacks and disappointments as well as both health-deteriorating and health-promoting experiences depending on the actual labour market position. Our overarching theme of “Living in the shadow of unemployment – an unhealthy life situation” implies that it is not only the actual situation of being unemployed that is problematic but that the other phases are also coloured by earlier experiences of unemployment .ConclusionA focus on young people’s health experiences of transitions from school into the labour market brings a new focus on the importance of macroeconomic influence on social processes and contextualised mechanisms from a life-course perspective.

Hypertension perspectives and health behaviors of African youth: The effect of health education and employment

“…[48][49][50][51][52] Such interventions may be particularly salient for NEET youth, who have been reported as highly vulnerable to stress as a result of their NEET status. 27,53 Our results also showed that young adults generally fear embarking on lifelong medication use. This is consistent with other research and suggests that medication adherence in young adults is generally low, 18,54,55 and medication side-effects are the main barrier to adherence in young adults with HTN.…”

“…48–52 Such interventions may be particularly salient for NEET youth, who have been reported as highly vulnerable to stress as a result of their NEET status. 27,53…”

The mental health of young people who are not in education, employment, or training: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Disengagement from school and work may further disadvantage those with mental health problems, widening the gap between them and peers who follow more engaged developmental trajectories. Disengagement may also further heighten feelings of shame, hopelessness, and social exclusion [ 20 , 51 ]. Analyses for NEET status predicting the later occurrence of mental health problems aggregated, substance use problems aggregated, and all measures combined were not conclusive.…”

State level agreed-upon factors contributing to more effective policymaking for public sector services for effective local-level work with NEETs

“…The disadvantaged situation of NEET youth is further exacerbated by health problems (OECD 2015b;Hammarström and Ahlgren 2019;Stea et al 2019) and gender (Russell 2016 a,b;Saczyńska-Sokół 2018). Therefore, NEET youth require a complex, multi-faceted approach since gender, place of residence, manner of intervention, possible financial support, disability, and other temporal factors can all significantly impact upon whether young people are in employment or education (Luthra et al 2018).…”