Ralston, K., Raab, G., Dibben, C. & Feng, Z. (2013) British Society for Population Studies Annual Conference, University of Swansea, UK, 9 - 11 September 2013 [SLS]

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Abstract:

The high proportion of young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) is considered a serious social problem and has drawn considerable attention from academic researchers and policy makers in Britain. Being left out of employment or education at a young age may have long lasting effects in later life. However, there have been theoretical debates on the consequences of the NEET experiences, and so far empirical studies have yielded mixed results. This paper aims to investigate whether experiences of being NEET have adverse effects on later life chances in the Scottish context, where the prevalence of NEETs is persistently high in comparison with other parts of Britain. We used the Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS), which is a 5.3% representative sample of the Scottish population We followed young people who were aged 16-19 in 1991 to 2001 when they were aged 26-29. Our outcome variables are economic activities, limiting long term illness and lone parent status. We used descriptive and modelling approaches in our analysis. Our research found that in 1991 NEETs were more likely to be of older (within the 16 to 19 age range), female, with lower qualifications, and to report limiting long illness. The NEET status in 1991 appears to be associated with negative social and health outcomes in 2001 but the strength of association varies with the type of outcome.

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Output from project: 2013_005