Abstract
Young adults tend to be more optimistic about the future than older people, even during social and economic crises such as those created by the COVID pandemic. In this paper, we analyse survey data from a previous economic crisis to examine why young adults remain optimistic about their personal futures, and to consider what lessons, if any, this can help us with thinking about a post-COVID future. The data in question are drawn from a unique cross-sectional survey of young adults aged 22–29 in England, Scotland and Wales conducted in 2014, when youth unemployment in the UK was still extraordinarily high. Using these data, we assess the effect of resources, agency and individualism on young adults’ optimism. Multiple regression models of these data show that individual resources and individual attitudes not only have an independent effect on levels of youth optimism, but they can also interact. In particular, we argue that self-efficacy is the strongest predictor of youth optimism, together with educational resources, but we also show that some youth attitudes (namely individualism) affect youth optimism in different ways, depending on the level of individual-level resources available to the young person. These findings highlight the complexity of understanding youth optimism and point us towards possibilities for supporting young adults in post-pandemic times.
Highlights
As the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic unfold, recent headlines about young people have included stark warnings about the future prospects of young adults
Multiple regression models of these data show that individual resources and individual attitudes have an independent effect on levels of youth optimism, but they can interact
In Model 1, we find that youth optimism is significantly higher among young adults who reported having a degree, being in education, living independently and ethnicities other than White British
Summary
As the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic unfold, recent headlines about young people have included stark warnings about the future prospects of young adults. The data in question are drawn from a unique cross-sectional survey of young adults aged 22–29 in England, Scotland and Wales, conducted in 2014 (when youth employment prospects were still suffering the consequences of the 2008 Global Economic Crash; see ONS 2014) Multiple regression of these data show that individual resources and individual agency have an independent effect on individual levels of youth optimism, but they interact. These analyses shed further light on the complex relationships between youth attitudes, resources and optimism, and show that the relationship between youth attitudes and optimism varies depending on the level of resources available to the young adult Those with scarcer resources, such as the NEET youth in our study, are more pessimistic than their peers only if they are highly individualistic, indicating an exacerbating effect of negative attitudes on a socio-economic disadvantaged position. These findings highlight the complexity of understanding youth optimism and point us towards possibilities for supporting young adults in post-pandemic times
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