Evaluation of Experience-Driven Career Support Services for NEET Youth in Community Contexts

Figures & data

Figure 1. Major categories of interventions under the experience-driven framework.

Table 1. Socio-demographic characteristics of participants.

Basic information	Research Participants (n = 660)
	N/Mean (%/SD)
Gender
Male	381 (57.70)
Female	279 (42.30)
Age	18.10 (1.46)
Educational attainment
Primary 6 or below	2 (.30)
Secondary 1	13 (2.00)
Secondary 2	18 (2.70)
Secondary 3	39 (5.90)
Secondary 4	12 (1.80)
Secondary 5	40 (6.10)
Secondary 6 or equivalent	512 (77.60)
Post-secondary	21 (3.20)
Undergraduate degree or above	3 (.50)
Duration as NEET (0.5 – 84 months)	2.84 (4.49)
Presenting problems
Seclusion at home	14 (2.10)
Involvement in deviant activities	6 (.90)
Suffering from health problems	10 (1.50)
lack of clear goals for work, study, and life	465 (70.50)
limitation of personal abilities	134 (20.30)
Disabling family and social factors	16 (2.40)
Unspecified problems encountered	15 (2.30)
No presenting problems	0 (0)

Table 2. Pre-intervention comparison of NEET participants in psychosocial resources with regard to their gender, educational attainment, length of duration as NEETs, and presenting problems (n = 660).

	CAAS Mean (SD)	F	Support Mean (SD)	F	Career engagement Mean (SD)	F
Gender		2.51		.34		2.04
Female	3.57 (.53)		3.40 (.62)		3.21 (.65)
Male	3.62 (.57)		3.31 (.65)		3.22 (.71)
Educational attainment		3.09**		2.27*		2.71**
Primary six or below	3.56 (.29)		2.88 (.88)		3.17 (.08)
Secondary 1	3.22 (.31)		2.96 (.78)		2.68 (.48)
Secondary 2	3.38 (.57)		3.04 (.54)		2.98 (.73)
Secondary 3	3.30 (.82)		3.18 (.71)		2.96 (.74)
Secondary 4	3.44 (.63)		3.40 (1.11)		3.01 (.92)
Secondary 5	3.65 (.52)		3.31 (.71)		3.14 (.64)
Secondary 6 or seven	3.64 (.53)		3.39 (.61)		3.27 (.67)
Post-secondary	3.55 (.43)		3.17 (.62)		3.07 (.61)
Undergraduate degree or above	3.38 (.26)		3.75 (.43)		3.44 (1.06)
Length of duration as NEETs		−.16***		−.15****		−.09*
Presenting problems		1.36		2.32*		1.63
Seclusion at home	3.31 (.53)		3.11 (.70)		2.80 (.80)
Involvement in deviant activities	3.49 (.76)		3.29 (1.04)		2.91 (.70)
Suffering from health problems	3.64 (.50)		3.78 (.49)		3.22 (.91)
No clear goals for work, study & life	3.61 (.55)		3.34 (.62)		3.21 (.69)
Limitation of abilities	3.65 (.53)		3.42 (.62)		3.30 (.60)
Disabling family and social factors	3.33 (.60)		3.08 (.84)		3.30 (.84)
Unspecified problems	3.52 (.66)		3.10 (.72)		3.01 (.75)

Table 3. Repeated measures ANOVA of psychosocial resources by controlling for gender, educational attainment, length of duration as NEETs, and presenting problems. (n = 660).

	Pre-intervention Mean (SD)	Post-intervention Mean (SD)	Wilks’ lambda	F	df	Error df	p	Partial Eta Squared
Career adaptability	3.60 (.02)	3.92 (.02)	.78	185.00	1	644	.000	.22
Social support	3.35 (.03)	3.73 (.03)	.79	170.63	1	652	.000	.21
Career engagement	3.21 (.03)	3.69 (.03)	.73	240.37	1	647	.000	.27

Table 4. MANCOVA and Underlying Univariate ANCOVAs of post-intervention scores on career adaptability, social support, and career engagement by groups of interventions (n = 660).

MANCOVA	Pillai’s trace	F	df	Error df	p	Partial eta squared
Post-intervention composite psychosocial resources	.05	3.19	9.00	1890.00	.001	.02

Univariate ANCOVAs

Dependent variables	df	F	sig^b	Partial eta squared	Categories of interventions	Means^a	95% confidence interval^b
Post-intervention career adaptability							Lower bound	Upper bound
	3	5.68	.000	.03	Category 1	3.84	3.76	3.91
					Category 2	3.99	3.94	4.04
					Category 3	3.73	3.57	3.88
					Category 4	3.90	3.79	4.01
Post-intervention social support	3	3.39	.018	.02	Category 1	3.63	3.54	3.72
					Category 2	3.79	3.74	3.85
					Category 3	3.69	3.52	3.87
					Category 4	3.68	3.56	3.80
Post-intervention career engagement	3	4.38	.005	.02	Category 1	3.54	3.44	3.65
					Category 2	3.77	3.70	3.83
					Category 3	3.63	3.43	3.83
					Category 4	3.67	3.53	3.80

a. Covariate-adjusted means using pretest scores of psychosocial resources, gender, educational attainment, length of duration as NEETs, and presenting problems as covariates. b. Using Bonferroni’s correction to evaluate the significance of differences in means for the dependent variables, so the significant level for post- social support is .025 and for post-career engagement is .017.

Table 5. Pre- and post-intervention status and sources of recognition.

Pre-intervention	N	%
NEET without status-based or non-status-based recognition	660	100
Post-intervention	N	%
Achievement of recognition	660	100
EET with only status-based recognition	482	73.0
NEET with only non-status-based recognition	14	2.10
EET with both status-based and non-status-based recognition	155	23.50
NEET without status-based or non-status-based recognition	9	1.40

Note. Sources of status-based recognition refer to students, employees or trainees; sources of non-status-based recognition refer to carers, volunteers, mentors, social activists or serious leisure devotees.

Access to data

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.