Participation of Young Adults in Youth Organisations in the United Kingdom: A Review

Abstract

The low participation of older teenagers and ‘young adults’ in non-formal youth provision has been a longstanding matter of concern in Britain. The aim of this paper is to generate some hypotheses about this ‘fall-off in participation in youth organisations in the young adult years (16-20) through selective review of research and other significant literature on the involvement of young adults in educational youth provision. A second paper reports the results obtained on testing of these hypotheses with a population of young people aged between 16 and 20. Statistical evidence of levels of attachment to youth organisations is reviewed in Section 2. In Section 3, patterns of involvement in youth organisations are investigated. Relationships between levels and patterns of involvement and the social and demographic characteristics are scanned, and a summary of the principal factors which appear to be associated with participation is produced. Section 4 identifies and discusses some of the available evidence concerning the effectiveness of various forms of organised youth provision as vehicles for the social education and development of the young adult. Finally, hypotheses concerning the ‘fall-off in participation are suggested. © 1987, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.