Beating the Odds: Exploring the Impact of Social Risk on Young People's School-to-Work Transitions during Recession in the UK

Abstract

Drawing on nationally representative data collected for two age cohorts in the UK, this paper a) assesses the effect of multiple independent socioeconomic risk factors in shaping the transition from school to work; and b) identifies potential protective factors enabling young people to beat the odds. By comparing experiences and findings across two cohorts we assess the generalisability of findings across contexts, i.e. the 2008 and 1980s recessions. The results show that some young people exposed to even severe socioeconomic risks avoid being NEET (not in education, employment or training). Factors that appear to reduce the cumulative risk effect in both cohorts include prior attainment, educational aspirations and school engagement, as well as the social mix of the school environment.

Developmental trajectories of emotional disengagement from schoolwork and their longitudinal associations in England

“…Another interesting result surfaced in young adulthood, where the disengaging mildly, disengaging rapidly and disengaging disengaged students were more likely to be unemployed than their comparison students. Possibly their lower educational aspirations and achievement might have been a risk factor for unemployment, as has been found already in the LSYPE, and in other British cohorts (Duckworth & Schoon, ; Schoon ).…”

“…However, taking a vocational route after compulsory schooling has been associated with improved mental health in England (Symonds et al ., ), raising the question of whether emotional disengagement with schooling can associate with positive outcomes later in the life course. In comparison, several studies have examined the longitudinal associations of emotional engagement with schooling, finding that it consistently predicts greater academic and occupational attainment in young adulthood and adulthood in Australia and England (Schoon, ; Duckworth & Schoon, ; Abbott‐Chapman et al ., ).…”

Conceptualizing Individual Agency in the Transition from School to Work: A Social-Ecological Developmental Perspective

“…For example, young people from the most privileged backgrounds tend to have higher levels of ambition than their less privileged peers, while those from relatively disadvantaged backgrounds are facing greater difficulties when developing ambitious educational and career goals, because they tend to feel constrained by perceptions of limited opportunities and resources (Eccles 2008;Schoon 2007). Their "horizon of perceived possibilities" is foreshortened, and thus they end up expressing lower educational and occupational aspirations and self-confidence than their more privileged peers (Duckworth and Schoon 2012;Eccles 2008;Mortimer 2003;Schoon 2012), and are more likely to believe that external causal factors (i.e. other people, luck or fate) influence their success in society .…”

A socio-ecological model of agency: The role of psycho-social and socioeconomic resources in shaping education and employment transitions in England

“…There is also evidence to suggest that children born into less privileged families (characterised by low levels of parental education, low income, unemployment, single or early parenthood, poor housing conditions) show, in general, lower levels of educational attainment (Breen & Goldthorpe, 2001;Bukodi & Goldthorpe, 2013;Shavit, Arum, & Gamoran, 2007), selfconfidence and educational achievement motivation (Duckworth & Schoon, 2012;Eccles, 2008;Mortimer, 2003;Schoon, 2014). Explanations of these associations refer to cumulative risk effects (DiPrete & Eirich, 2006), the lack of financial resources, time or energy of parents to invest in the education of their children (Guo & Harris, 2000), familiarity with the dominant culture, social networks and connections, or access to warm and supportive parenting (Conger, Conger, & Martin, 2010).…”

“…We thus consider the impact of multiple socioeconomic risk factors in order to a. provide a more comprehensive description of the living situation of young people today, and b. to more accurately predict and understand developmental outcomes. We focus in particular on the role of parental education and employment status, housing conditions, as well as family structure -all of which reflect the socioeconomic resources that shape everyday experiences (Moore, Vandivere, & Redd, 2006;Schoon, 2006), and which have shown independent associations with youth transitions (Duckworth & Schoon, 2012).…”