Gen Z adults who experienced mental health difficulties in their teens are more likely than their peers to not be in education, employment or training (NEET) in early adulthood.
However, mental ill-health made little difference to whether millennials were NEET in their early 20s. This is according to a new policy briefing published by Equalise – ESRC Centre for Lifecourse Health Equity.
What the researchers looked at
Researchers from UCL and the University of Essex analysed data from almost 8,000 people born in the UK in 2000-01 who are taking part in the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS). They looked at whether participants were in education, employment or training at age 23, and how this differed for those who had experienced mental health problems at ages 14 and 17 and those who had not.
The researchers then compared their results to a group of millennials born in 1992 who are taking part in the Understanding Society study. They looked at their mental health at ages 16 or 17 and examined whether they were NEET between age 18-24.
Generational differences
Among gen Z, being NEET at age 23 was more common for those who had the poorest mental health in their teens, compared to their peers who had reported the fewest symptoms of mental ill-health (22% v 14%).
Millennials had lower rates of NEET overall. There was also little difference between those who had experienced mental health problems in their teenage years and those who had not (9% v 8%).
In a separate analysis of the MCS data, the researchers looked at whether the areas young people grew up in had an impact on their chances of being NEET at age 23. They found that those who lived in the most deprived neighbourhoods were at greater risk of being NEET than those from the most advantaged areas (18% v 11%).
Tackling youth unemployment
The findings come as the government await final recommendations for tackling youth unemployment from the independent review led by former minister Alan Milburn. The review’s interim report warned that more than one million young people aged 16 to 24 are NEET.
Dr Emily Murray (University of Essex) said: “It is striking that the link between poor mental health at 14 and being out of education, employment or training at 23 has grown stronger. Our findings showed, for those born a decade earlier, the gap was barely there. Something has changed for this generation, and we urgently need to understand what.”
Dr Katie S Taylor (UCL) added: “Mental health is becoming an increasingly important driver of young people’s chances in life. It is particularly concerning to see a worsening link between poor mental health in adolescence and being out of education, employment or training in early adulthood among more recently born generations; with the highest risk concentrated among young people growing up in the most deprived communities.”
Further information
Read: Adolescent mental health, area deprivation and later participation in education, training and work in England, by Katie Sarah Taylor, Emily Murray et al.