Transition Of Young People Research Articles

Intertwined precariousness and precarity: Disentangling a phenomenon that characterises Spanish youth

AbstractThe growth of non‐standard employment has emerged as a crucial factor that contributes to delays and difficulties in young people's transitions to adulthood. Previous studies have demonstrated the importance of multidimensional measures of precariousness. This paper aims to investigate the phenomenon of precariousness holistically, using an original database of respondents in Spain from 20 to 34 years of age. Using a mixed‐methods approach, we explore young people's understandings of precariousness and examine its key determinants and consequences. The findings illustrate the multidimensional nature of feelings of precariousness, with economic insecurity and work conditions being core elements. Our results point to precarity stemming from a combination of inextricably intertwined objective and subjective components, as well as work and economic dimensions.

Understanding Career Aspiration, Self-Efficacy and Perseverance among Young Adults

In order to shed light on the developmental paths of young people (18–25 years old), this dissertation delves into the complex dynamics of self-efficacy, persistence, and professional ambition. The goal is to inform about interventions and support systems that cater to this demographic. The research explores how many elements, such as cultural variances, mentorship connections, educational experiences, and intersectionality among identities, influence ideas about one's own abilities, methods for sticking with a task, and long-term professional goals. The study's overarching goal is to aid young people' professional growth by illuminating potential solutions to the complex web of relationships between individual, societal, and environmental elements. In addition, the dissertation explores career counseling techniques that help clarify and pursue professional goals, techniques that promote resilience and grit, and methods for boosting self-efficacy in educational & occupational contexts. Contributing to the current body of knowledge within career development psychology and offering practical benefits for educators, counselors, policymakers, and all those invested in supporting young people's transition for the workforce, this study aims to conduct a comprehensive examination of all of those constructs and interventions

Youth participation processes in longitudinal out of home care research

AbstractWhile there is growing recognition of the importance of meaningful youth participation in activities and decisions which impact their lives, facilitating such engagement within different forums requires varied approaches. A programme of youth research at one Western Australian university has sought to embed pathways for ongoing youth participation in longitudinal research. In particular, we discuss Navigating Through Life, a large‐scale WA research project comprising three sub‐studies exploring young people's transitions from out of home care (OOHC) to independence. We established a youth advisory group to run alongside the project and employed peer researchers to conduct research tasks. In this paper, we seek to explicate the development and various iterations of youth participation in the project. We utilise our reflections, interview data and documentation from YAG meetings and feedback sessions with the peer researchers to illustrate the processes of transformation and flexibility required to develop and maintain youth participation in various ways across the project's life. Drawing on our findings and current literature, we highlight how funding bodies and researchers must consider the additional needs, unique and changeable life circumstances of young people to best facilitate their involvement in research.

Adulthood status and its associations with stress and well-being among Chinese emerging adults: A person-centred approach.

With the implementation of China's one-child policy and the increasing living costs, a large number of young people are expected to postpone reaching adulthood. However, little research has explored the patterns of Chinese young people's transition to adulthood. Using a person-centred approach, the current study examined the commonly accepted markers of adulthood status endorsed and attained by 1203 Chinese emerging adults aged 18-29 years. We further compared the distinct adulthood statuses with regard to perceptions of stress and well-being. Latent profile analysis identified four adulthood status profiles: diffused (16.0%), moratorium (45.3%), transitional (23.3%) and achieved (15.4%). Females, those who had no job or came from low family socioeconomics, were more likely to be in the moratorium status. Compared to the other two profiles, participants in diffused and moratorium profiles reported higher levels of perceived stress and lower well-being. These results suggest that there are distinct profiles of Chinese emerging adults on the transition path to adulthood, with a large proportion of them not yet reaching adulthood, and that different statuses of adulthood may be associated with different psychological outcomes.

Parental socioeconomic status and age at leaving home in Europe: Exploring regional differences

AbstractLeaving the parental home is a milestone in young people's transition to adulthood. The timing of leaving home varies greatly across European countries; however, evidence on the association between parental socioeconomic status (SES) and the age at leaving home in a comparative perspective is mixed, and subnational variation has received little attention. The module on the timing of life events included in Round 3 (2006) and 9 (2018) of the European Social Survey offers the opportunity to study how parental SES is associated with the age at leaving home, and how this association varies at the national and regional level for a sample of respondents born between the 1950s and the 1980s in 175 regions across 29 European countries. Results from three‐level linear regression models indicate that a high parental SES postpones women's age at leaving home in most Southern and Eastern European countries, where state support to young people is low and family ties are strong, whereas the association between parental SES and the age at leaving home is less clear‐cut in Western and Nordic countries. Between‐country variation in the association between parental SES and the age at home‐leaving prevails over within‐country variation, suggesting that the role of the parental background is country‐specific and that other unobserved factors may explain within‐country heterogeneity.

Food literacy competencies in youth - a mini-review.

Young people's transition into adulthood is an opportunity in the life course to establish adequate eating behaviors, hence exploring food literacy competencies in this period of life is especially important. Food literacy has recently gained increased attention in adults, adolescents, and younger children, but less is published about youth. This paper aims to summarize what tools have been used to measure food literacy and the sub-competence nutrition literacy in youth aged 16-24 years in the previous 5 years. A mini-literature review was conducted in MEDLINE and EMBASE via Ovid, in September 2022. Study eligible criteria; had to be an original article, using a tool to quantitatively assess food literacy and/or nutrition literacy, including participants between 16-24 years, full text available in English, published between 2017-2022. A total of 958 articles were identified, of which 385 duplicates were removed. Thus, 573 articles were screened by title/abstract. Finally, nine articles were eligible for data extraction of which four proposed a tool to measure food literacy and five proposed a tool to measure nutrition literacy. Although four studies claimed to measure food literacy, none of these used tools comprehensive enough to measure all aspects of food literacy, and only one was validated in young people. This study shows that only few tools exist for the measurement of food literacy in youth, and those available are scant. Further work is needed to develop a food literacy tool for youth.

Young people's schooling trajectories and transitions to social adulthood in the context of Brazil's Bolsa Família

As cash transfers have become key tenets of social protection systems in the global South, much effort has gone into evaluating their outcomes. Less attention has been paid, however, to young beneficiaries’ experiences of cash transfers and the contextualised and differentiated impacts on their lives at the micro-level. Based on a qualitative study of young recipients of Brazil's Bolsa Família programme, this article explores the factors that shape young people's schooling trajectories. The article demonstrates the complexity of young people's lives vis-à-vis the CCT policy model; particularly, how their trajectories do not conform to its linear logic, but rather reflect a more complex interaction of gender norms and social and economic inequalities. The tension between the linearity of the policy model and these differentiated and gendered trajectories in turn complicates how young people navigate the transition to social adulthood, by marking out ‘problematic’ vs ‘successful’ transitions and trajectories.

Identification of Housing Stabilization Models for Youth Exiting Homelessness: A grey literature review

This systematic review describes the international grey literature addressing housing stabilization support models for youth. The review yielded 15 reports with a range of information on preventative activities that focus on well-being embedded within the various form of housing stabilization. These approaches build on the premise that housing alone does not provide an effective solution to youth homelessness. Analyses of the content of these reports revealed both cross-cutting, process-oriented themes, alongside descriptions of the outcomes associated with specific intervention models. These findings emphasized the importance of intersectoral collaboration, early intervention coupled with intensive case management, and applying an attachment-oriented theoretical framework in guiding model implementation. Other highlighted results include specific models of housing stabilization with a particular concentration on housing intervention programs that address the interdependency between housing, income, and education. These stabilization supports, practices, and policies offered by organizations were associated with improved outcomes. This review, however, was limited by a lack of controlled studies amongst the reports and, in many instances, a lack of clarity regarding the service models delivered. Despite these limitations, this review provides an overall view of the grey literature evidence regarding the strategies to support young people in transition out of homelessness that complements and expands upon the academic literature in this area. Further research is needed with clearer and more rigorous methods, more detailed intervention descriptions, as well as data on applicability for visible minorities and specific employment interventions tied with housing supports.

Promoting Practitioner Research through a Social Work Teaching Partnership

Research is critical for effective and innovative social work practice, yet social workers do not always have time to engage with research and there are limited accounts of how practitioners can undertake research in practical and meaningful terms (Mitchell, Lunt, and Shaw 2010). Using a reflective, storytelling methodology (Beresford 2016), which centres experiential knowledge, we describe how one regional social work teaching partnership nurtured practitioner research over a three-year period. We introduce a regionally administrated ‘hub’, that connected social workers and academics and supported the development of seventeen research teams. The studies that resulted, focused on a range of important issues including child protection, young people in transition to adult services, adults in community and residential settings, lived experience-led provision, and social work education. In terms of limitations, our reflections are descriptive and illuminative, rather than critical, our findings are also not representative but rather reflect a snapshot of practice. Despite limitations, this commentary reveals the feasibility and value of proactively nurturing practitioner research and offers a blueprint for cultivating similar initiatives in other regions.

Founding German vocational education: Kerschensteiner, Spranger and Fischer as key figures in the classical German VET theory

Abstract This introduction familiarises the readers of this Special Issue with some important information and arguments that set the life and work of Georg Kerschensteiner, Eduard Spranger and Aloys Fischer in context. In addition, it shows their relevance to current debates and policies in vocational education and training (VET) in both Germany and the Anglophone countries. As a first step, some important concepts in German VET that may cause difficulty in the interpretation for English-speaking readers are introduced and explained. Following from that, an outline of the historical context in which modern German VET was developed is set out and then the place of Kerschensteiner, Spranger and Fischer within that context is described with particular reference to the continuation school, the focus of Kerschensteiner's contribution. Spranger's main contribution was to integrate concern for VET within broader academic issues about education, while Fischer was concerned with young people's transition into the labour force at a time of considerable social and economic change. The introduction concludes with a discussion of the relevance of these thinkers and German VET more generally to the current situation of VET in England, with reference to such topics as ‘academic drift’ and liberal and civic education.

Do demographic, and clinical characteristics influence meeting NICE quality standards for young people transitioning to adult intellectual disability services?

PurposeThis study aims to evaluate the quality of transition from child and adolescent services to adult intellectual disability services, using the relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) standard (QS140). In addition, this study also identifies any differences in transition quality between those young people with intellectual disability with and without autism.Design/methodology/approachUsing routinely collected clinical data, this study identifies demographic and clinical characteristics of, and contextual complexities experienced by, young people in transition between 2017 and 2020. Compliance with the quality standard was assessed by applying dedicated search terms to the records.FindingsThe study highlighted poor recording of data with only 22% of 306 eligible cases having sufficient data recorded to determine compliance with the NICE quality standard. Available data indicated poor compliance with the standard. Child and adolescent mental health services, generally, did not record mental health co-morbidities. Compliance with three out of the five quality statements was higher for autistic young people, but this only reached statistical significance for one of those statements (i.e. having a named worker, p = 0.02).Research limitations/implicationsMissing data included basic clinical characteristics such as the level of intellectual disability and the presence of autism. This required adult services to duplicate assessment procedures that potentially delayed clinical outcomes. This study highlights that poor compliance may reflect inaccurate recording that needs addressing through training and introduction of shared protocols.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the transition process between children’s and adults’ intellectual disability health services using NICE quality standard 140.

Understanding health and social service accessibility foryoungpeople with problematic substance use exiting prison in Australia.

Incarcerated young people (aged 18-24) with a history of problematic substance use are a particularly vulnerable group, with a higher risk of mortality and return to custody compared to their older counterparts. Yet, there is limited research investigating service accessibility for this population. This study aimed to address this gap by investigating the characteristics of young people exiting prison on the 'Connections Program' (Connections) and their access to support services. Connections is a transitional program with a remit to link people with problematic substance use exiting prison in New South Wales, Australia, to health and social services in the community. We used an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach including (1) a retrospective cohort study of young people on Connections (n=359), utilising self-reported data collected in a routine pre-release questionnaire from January 2008 to February 2015 and (2) a qualitative survey with Connections caseworkers (n=10). In stage one, descriptive statistics were calculated to produce a profile of sociodemographic and health characteristics of young people with problematic substance use exiting prison. In stage two, qualitative data were thematically analysed to explore the accessibility of services to meet young people's needs from the perspective of caseworkers. The study found young people experienced substantially poorer mental health than the general population, and the vast majority had received treatment for a mental health issue (96.5%). Illicit substance use prior to incarceration was common (91.5%). Caseworkers reported substantial barriers to service accessibility in the community related to intersecting social disadvantage and co-occurring mental distress and substance use. Caseworkers have front-line knowledge of how gaps and barriers in services impact transition from prison and identified longer-term case coordination, inter-agency collaboration and holistic care as vital strategies to support young people in transition from prison to community.

Exploring Empowerment from the Perception of Child Welfare Practitioners: Opening a New Time Horizon

ABSTRACT Although empowerment is increasingly studied as a concept structuring social intervention, there are still very few studies reporting on how it is perceived by practitioners in their work. This meaning is all the more important to grasp in the context of child protection, where legal structures and guidelines delimit and sometimes restrict the opportunities available to young people in transition to adulthood. Using semi-structured interviews with child welfare practitioners, our study aims to examine how they define and promote the empowerment of young people in care in their transition to adulthood. Results indicate that the transition to adulthood requires a time-based projection beyond the age of majority, both for the practitioners and for youth. Therefore, empowerment cannot be worked solely on a day-to-day basis, but must be part of a broader horizon, which is accessible through a community vision of intervention and service provision.

Youth Entrepreneurship Dynamics in Benin: Was Access to Finance the Missing Piece for Opportunistic Self-Employment?

Young people in developing countries and more especially in Sub-Saharan African countries are seeking employment opportunities in challenging economic and social environments. Entrepreneurship appears then as a key factor in reducing unemployment, grasping for a sustainable job and reducing poverty. Both national and international authorities are taking steps to facilitate youth entrepreneurship. In that context, this study aims at reexamining the effect of access to finance on the dynamics of entrepreneurship of young people in transition from School to work in Benin. Using a SURE Probit procedure on data from the International Labor Organization (ILO) we estimated jointly the predicted probability of entrepreneurship intention and the access to finance. Findings show that effective financial inclusion is very important for the dynamics of youth entrepreneurship in Benin but due to the nature of the youth entrepreneurship in Benin, driven essentially by necessity purpose, there is a need for policies measures towards education and particularly entrepreneurship education that are key in the effectiveness of youth financial prosperity.

Exploring the Factors that Impact Students' Transitions to University in Australia

There are prominent gaps in educational opportunities and academic outcomes in the Australian education system. The government has made efforts to narrow the gaps and increase the proportion of Australians with higher education qualifications. However, disadvantaged students still lack access to educational opportunities and resources, and are underrepresented in university populations. This essay explores the influential factors that can affect young people's academic and transition outcomes, which involve students' socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds, engagement in extra-curricular activities and geographical locations. This essay also mainly draws on Bourdieu's theory on social and cultural capital to explain the associations between those factors and students' transitions to university in Australia.

Transitioning to adulthood from residential childcare during COVID-19: Experiences of young people with intellectual disabilities and/or autism spectrum disorder in South Africa.

Accessible Summary For young people with intellectual disabilities and/or autism, the transition from children's residential care into adulthood during COVID‐19 has been difficult.Opportunities for greater independence were blocked because of the lockdown.Some of these young people experienced an increase in depression or other mental health difficulties.But more time at home due to public health restrictions also helped to deepen the relationship with caregivers.Service continuity is crucial, both in person and online, to support care leavers with intellectual disability and/or autism, as well as training and support to caregivers to continue with independent and interdependent living programmes at home. BackgroundThis study focuses on young people with intellectual disabilities and/or autism who, due to child welfare concerns, have grown up in children's residential care and are now transitioning out of care at the age of 18 years towards young adulthood. This transition is termed “care leaving” and the young people in transition “care leavers”. The care leaving transition can be particularly difficult for young people with intellectual disabilities and/or autism. These challenges can be magnified in a time of a global crisis like COVID‐19, which has resulted in countries being on lockdown and care leavers’ transitions being curtailed. Many mental health problems have emerged due to the COVID‐19 outbreak and resultant lockdown that may negatively impact on the care leaving transition of young people with intellectual disabilities.MethodsSemi‐structured interviews were conducted with six care leavers with intellectual disabilities and their three caregivers in June 2020 in the Cape Peninsula region of South Africa to explore the impact of COVID‐19 on their transitional journeys.FindingsThree core themes emerged from the analysis: young people evidenced regression of independence, rather than the expected growth in young adult independence, due to disruptions to routines and opportunities to move out into the world; some young people experienced an exacerbation or emergence of mental health problems, which impacted on their transition to young adulthood; and young people and their caregivers experienced a deepening of caregiver relationships, which enhanced the transition of the care leaver.ConclusionsServices must continue to facilitate progress towards independence and promote personal and caregiver well‐being. Support service for care leavers with intellectual disabilities should be essential services, offered in person or online while adhering to COVID‐19 regulations. Caregivers should be trained in continuing independent and interdependent living programmes for care leavers in their care, supported through in person or online training, mentoring and supervision. Service continuity is recommended to avoid the contraction of young people's social world at a time when it should be opening up.

Transition from child and adolescent mental health services to adult mental health services

BackgroundThe prevalence and recognition of mental health conditions in young people is growing. Around 50% of lifetime mental illness (except dementia) begins by the age of 14. Around 75% of adults requiring secondary mental health services developed problems prior to 18.The TRACK study of young people's transitions from CAMHS to AMHS has found that up to a third of teenagers are lost from care during transition and a further third experience an interruption in their care.A CQUIN for Transition has concluded that young children should have a transition plan 6 months before they turn 18.MethodAll young people aged 17 and a half years old were included in the data collection for this audit. Clinical information was reviewed using the West London RIO computer system. While reviewing the clinical documentation I was recording whether:Transitional plans had been discussed with the young person.If yes, what were they?Had a referral been made to the appropriate service?ResultThere were 180 open cases to the Hounslow Adolescent Team. 35 cases were over 18:At least 16 of these cases needed to be closed as no intervention was being provided.14 cases had an unclear plan.Of the 25 cases aged between 17.5 and 18 years of age transitional plans were:Transition was discussed in 11 cases (44%). This meant that transitional plans were not discussed in 56% of young people.Of these 11 cases 7 referrals were completed. (28%)ConclusionThe lack of consistent protocols for transition remains a significant barrier to health care provided to young people.Transitional planning needs to take place in an effective and timely manner to ensure continued patient centred care.Transitional discussions to be made a regular agenda item at team meetings.Care co-ordinator to be informed and reminded that transitional plans need to be explored with young people.Following a re-audit of this data 6 months on 100% of cases over the age of 18 were closed and transition was discussed in the remaining 56%.

The rights movement of young people living in and leaving care in England between 1973 and 2011: A history from below

AbstractThis paper explores the history of the rights movement of young people in care in England between 1973 and 2011. It describes the histories of the different groups that made up the movement during this 38‐year period: the Leeds Ad‐Lib group (1973–1975); Who Cares? (1975–1978); the National Association of Young People in Care (1979–1994); Black and In Care (1983–1985); and A National Voice (1998–2011). The narrative includes an analysis of contextual factors and the contribution of these groups in increasing awareness of leaving care policy and practice issues. The article concludes with a discussion of a young person's history of care, including recurring themes relating to young people's transitions to adulthood: their ‘loss’ of family; their disrupted lives in care; their experience of education; leaving care early; and their lack of support into adulthood.

Exploration of the costs of accessing health services: data from a longitudinal study of young people in transition from paediatric to adult services

BackgroundEconomic evaluations that include the patient perspective often base their estimates of patient time and travel costs on data collected at a single point in time. This, however, may be inaccurate if the costs of accessing care change substantially over time, as may be the case for young people in transition from paediatric to adult health services.AimsThe aim of this study was to explore the differences in these time and travel costs between two data collection points for young individuals in transition between health care services, and thus to provide an insight of whether such costs should be collected more than once.MethodsDescriptive statistics and regression modelling were used to estimate the average difference in costs between the two points of data collection, as well as the potential drivers of those cost differences.ResultsWe found a small difference in costs between the two time points, equal to -£45.78 [95% CI: − 89.70 to − 1.86]. The results were largely driven by changes in the unit cost of visits and in the number of attendances.ConclusionsA simple and common assumption that patient costs could be collected at a single time point cannot be made in the context of our study. When deciding on the frequency of elicitation of patient costs, future studies should consider the relative impacts of additional data collection on the estimates of efficiency, inequalities and resource implications for collecting new data.

Overweight/obesity among 15- to 24-year-old women in Ghana: 21-year trend, future projections and socio-demographic correlates.

Although developing countries are experiencing some of the fastest rises in the prevalence of adult overweight and obesity, little is known about the pace of the problem among young people in transition from adolescence to adulthood. This study examined the trend and associated socio-demographic predictors of overweight/obesity (BMI ≥25kg/m2) from 1993 to 2014 among women aged 15-24 years in Ghana and projected the future prevalence from 2019 to 2040. Descriptive statistics, the arithmetic linear change model, and binary logistic regression were applied to data on women aged 15-24 years from five nationally representative Ghana Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in 1993 (N=488), 1998 (N=517), 2003 (N=1832), 2008 (N=1693) and 2014 (N=1491). Overall, overweight/obesity among women aged 15-24 years almost tripled between the 1993 (6.8%; 95% CI=4.9-9.3) and 2014 (19.5%; 95% CI=17.3-21.2) surveys. Based on the arithmetic linear change model, overweight/obesity is projected to increase linearly to over 35% among the 15-24 year cohort of women by 2040. Age, educational level, wealth status, occupation, type of locality, ethnicity, frequency of viewing TV per week, parity and contraceptive use were found to be significant predictors of overweight/obesity among this sub-group of women. The trend of overweight/obesity demonstrated in this group of women could potentially provide momentum for further increases in the prevalence of overweight/obesity and associated health outcomes in the coming years in Ghana. This underscores the need for urgent national-level public health intervention efforts to curtail the problem.