title: Committed to work but vulnerable: self-perceptions and mental health in NEET 18-year olds from a contemporary British cohort.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Labour market disengagement among youths has lasting negative economic and social consequences, yet is poorly understood. We compared four types of work-related self-perceptions, as well as vulnerability to mental health and substance abuse problems, among youths not in education, employment or training (NEET) and among their peers.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were from the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) longitudinal study, a nationally representative UK cohort of 2,232 twins born in 1994-1995. We measured commitment to work, job-search effort, professional/technical skills, 'soft' skills (e.g. teamwork, decision-making, communication), optimism about getting ahead, and mental health and substance use disorders at age 18. We also examined childhood mental health.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At age 18, 11.6% of participants were NEET. NEET participants reported themselves as committed to work and searching for jobs with greater diligence than their non-NEET peers. However, they reported fewer 'soft' skills (B = -0.98, p < .001) and felt less optimistic about their likelihood of getting ahead in life (B = -2.41, p < .001). NEET youths also had higher rates of concurrent mental health and substance abuse problems, but these did not explain the relationship with work-related self-perceptions. Nearly 60% of NEET (vs. 35% of non-NEET) youths had already experienced ≥1 mental health problem in childhood/adolescence. Associations of NEET status with concurrent mental health problems were independent of pre-existing mental health vulnerability.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings indicate that while NEET is clearly an economic and mental health issue, it does not appear to be a motivation issue. Alongside skills, work-related self-perceptions and mental health problems may be targets for intervention and service provision among this high-risk population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, University of California, Merced, CA, USA.|Center for Developmental Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Sidra
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7726-0845
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Goldman-Mellor
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.|Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA.|Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Avshalom
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Caspi
authors.affiliation: Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Arseneault
authors.affiliation: Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Nifemi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ajala
authors.affiliation: Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Antony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ambler
authors.affiliation: Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.|Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.|National and Specialist Child Traumatic Stress and Anxiety Clinic, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Danese
authors.affiliation: Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.affiliation: Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Abigail
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hucker
authors.affiliation: Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Candice
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Odgers
authors.affiliation: Nuffield Foundation, London, UK.
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Chloe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.|Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA.|Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Terrie E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Moffitt
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012649:Self Concept; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: Adolescence; depression; employment; longitudinal studies; mental health; self-perceptions