Beyond ‘NEET’ and ‘tidy’ pathways: considering the ‘missing middle’ of youth transition studies

Roberts, Steven

doi:10.1080/13676261.2010.489604

Cited by 173 publications

(123 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Yet, the assumption of a polarised life course does not take into account the experiences of a 'forgotten middle' (Roberts, 2011) who successfully balance the structural and individual resources available to them (Schoon, 2015). 'Success' in transition experiences in this context has been conceptualised in terms of objective (i.e.…”

Section: S T R U C T U R a L C O N S T R A I N T Smentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet, social inequalities appear to be more finely graded -and the findings suggest the need to move beyond the conceptualization of youth transitions in terms of a dichotomy between 'successful' and 'problematic' transitions. There is a large group of young people who fall outside this dualism -the 'forgotten middle' (Roberts, 2011) -who try to gain independence through the previously standard route of continuous employment after the completion of secondary education, either at age 16 or after some further education. It is this group of young people who generally has fallen off the radar of policy makers, and who receive the least support in their transition to independence.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diverse pathways in becoming an adult: The role of structure, agency and context

Schoon

Lyons-Amos

2016

Research in Social Stratification and Mobility

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Although the transition from education to work has been a topic of much research, there is still lack of understanding regarding experiences of recent cohorts of young people. Moreover, much of the debate has focused on the polarization of youth transitions, at the neglect of a large group of young people who fall outside this dualism. This paper introduces a diverse pathways view offering a more comprehensive understanding of changing youth transitions and examines how transitions are shaped by interactions between structure and individual agency. The study is based on data from the British Household Panel Study (BHPS) and the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UK-HLS) using sequence analysis to identify transition patterns among cohorts born in 1980-84 and 1985-1989. Five distinct clusters could be identified, differentiating between those who participate in extended education, two pathways dominated by continuous employment, either directly after completing compulsory schooling at age 16 or after some further education, and two pathways characterized by exclusion from the labor market (either through prolonged experience of unemployment or inactivity). Both structural and agency variables are associated with variations in transition patterns, pointing to the need of conceptualizing the role of the agent as well as that of structures and resources for a better understanding of the processes underlying the selection into different pathways.

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Section: S T R U C T U R a L C O N S T R A I N T Smentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Diverse pathways in becoming an adult: The role of structure, agency and context

Schoon

Lyons-Amos

2016

Research in Social Stratification and Mobility

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“…At the same time, however, 'young employees' is a highly heterogeneous category (Nielsen et al, 2013), in which the risk of getting stuck in precarious employment seems higher to already marginalized groups on the labor market and within the education system, represented here by Mike and Elias (Nielsen & Dyreborg, 2015). There is a risk of these youths remaining permanently in a precarious situation, because their jobs do not offer the long-term career opportunities that might drive future transitions (Roberts, 2010(Roberts, , 2013 but imply, rather, stagnation and a lack of professional progress. Mike and Elias are in different ways less advantaged young adults.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Without a Safety Net: Precarization Among Young Danish Employees

Nielsen

Gørlich

Grytnes

et al. 2017

NJWLS

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“…Taken together these two sets of analyses indicate that there is a high degree of empirical regularity both north and south of the Scottish border. Second, the work responds to the appeal made by Roberts (2011) for researchers to use large-scale data resources to investigate the educational experiences of 'ordinary' young people. It also demonstrates that using both standard statistical models and more innovative techniques is beneficial.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parental socioeconomic influences on filial educational outcomes in Scotland: patterns of school-level educational performance using administrative data

Playford¹,

Gayle

Connelly

et al. 2016

Contemporary Social Science

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In Britain there have been manifest changes in the management and organisation of education, but despite these developments there are still persistent inequalities in pupils’ educational outcomes. These inequalities are consequential because school qualifications are known to influence both pupils’ immediate continuation in education, and their later educational and occupational outcomes. The Scottish school system is similar to the system in England and Wales but there are a distinctive set of qualifications. From the mid-1980s until 2013 the final years of compulsory schooling led up to Standard Grade qualifications. Standard Grades were similar to the General Certificates of Secondary Education (GCSEs) and are worthy of detailed sociological examination because they were the first major branching point in the Scottish education system. A specialist dataset using administrative records was constructed for this project. The dataset comprises young people who undertook Standard Grades in Scottish schools between 2007 and 2011, who were members of the Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS). We analyse pupils’ subject-area outcomes using a latent variable modelling approach, and explore characteristics associated with the membership of latent educational groups. The analyses uncovered four main latent educational groups. One group had very positive outcomes and pupils were generally more socially advantaged; another group had very poor outcomes and were generally more socially disadvantaged. There were two ‘middle’ groups, which both had similar moderate overall Standard Grade outcomes, but notably different subject-area-level outcomes. We conclude that during school hours these pupils are unlikely to be found drinking Iron Brew WKD in their local parks or at home playing on their Xbox; however, they are also unlikely to be filling out university application forms in the next couple of years

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Beyond ‘NEET’ and ‘tidy’ pathways: considering the ‘missing middle’ of youth transition studies

Cited by 173 publications

References 44 publications

Diverse pathways in becoming an adult: The role of structure, agency and context

Diverse pathways in becoming an adult: The role of structure, agency and context

Without a Safety Net: Precarization Among Young Danish Employees

Parental socioeconomic influences on filial educational outcomes in Scotland: patterns of school-level educational performance using administrative data

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