The links between structural and social marginalisation – social relations of young Finnish adults not in employment or education

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on the social attachments and detachments of 16- to 29-year-old young adults who are not in employment or education, and consequently not part of the sociability related to work or school. While the characteristics of this group tend to be well documented, there is less empirical research on their social relations. Here, the aim is to explore the interlinkages between young adults’ structural and social marginalisation through an analysis that draws upon two types of interlinked datasets: follow-up surveys and online group discussions conducted among a sample of young adults recruited from targeted youth services during 2017–2018. Leaning on empirical evidence, the paper argues that structural marginalisation is associated with the social marginalisation of young adults. With the use of both quantitative and qualitative data, the paper provides new youth-specific insights into the arguments made in the previous literature on financial constraints and stigma as mechanisms between structural and social marginalisation.

KEYWORDS:

• Loneliness
• structural marginalisation
• social marginalisation
• targeted youth work
• mixed methods

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 The Finnish Youth Act defines all those under the age of 30 as young people.

2 According to the Finnish Youth Act (1285/2016), various authorities are required to report those young people who have dropped out of the education system or military service to local youth departments. In addition, young people who are unemployed or who are a cause for concern in some other ways might also be reported.

3 The research was approved by the University of Eastern Finland Ethics Committee.

4 The fieldwork was conducted by Sanna Aaltonen, Antti Kivijärvi and Martta Myllylä.

5 ATH (Adults’ health and wellbeing) and HYPA (Wellbeing and services) surveys are conducted by the National Institute of Health and Wellbeing. ATH is a postal survey which covered 8,769 young adult respondents in 2013. HYPA is based on phone interviews, reaching 575 young adult respondents in 2013. In ATH, 11.3% reported feeling lonely often or constantly, while the corresponding figure was 2.9% in the HYPA survey. The frequencies have not fluctuated to any significant extent from year to year.

6 It is worth noting that participation in structured leisure activities (organised e.g. by civil society organisations) was not associated with loneliness in the regression models. Moreover, in the baseline survey the percentage of those participating in structured activities was similar to the percentages in the nationally representative ATH and HYPA surveys in 2013. Consequently, structured leisure activity may not be the key issue in breaking the bond between structural and social marginalisation.

7 The increase may be explained at least in part by the change of surveying method between baseline and follow-up phases. It might be easier to report negative and personal matters in postal or e-questionnaires than in the presence of a researcher.

Additional information

Funding

The research was funded by the Strategic Research Council at the Academy of Finland, grant number 303615/303650.