Students’ deeply ingrained negative thinking about their post-school prospects is contributing to high levels of youth unemployment in Scotland’s most disadvantaged communities, according to new University of Dundee research.
The researchers found that school leavers from these areas are more pessimistic about their career prospects than peers from more affluent backgrounds. These leavers also report less secure attachment relationships with people whom they can speak to about career opportunities.
A difference between genders was identified, too: female leavers were even more pessimistic about their success after school than males.
The research states: ”The results suggest that teaching, counselling and coaching interventions designed to enable high school students to explore and challenge both their subjective and objective experiences of career barriers may be effective in improving post-secondary outcomes for high school students from areas of higher social deprivation.
”Female students, in particular, may benefit from specific interventions which help them to identify and develop their levels of optimism about their career prospects.”
The findings are significant given the Scottish government’s continued investment in closing the disadvantage-related attainment gap so that “every child has the same opportunity to succeed”. As part of that push, it has invested in mentoring: in March 2021, the Scottish government announced a £19.4 million fund for mentoring programmes to support young people.
However, a rapid review published in October 2021 found “gaps in provision geographically” for mentoring.
Disadvantaged ‘need encouragement over careers’
The authors of the new research say their findings also have important implications for other policy initiatives, including the Young Person’s Guarantee scheme. This scheme aims to help the young people that schools deem to be at the greatest risk of failing to make a successful transition to employment, further education or training.
Every school leaver in Scotland is offered a placement in work or training, fully funded by the Scottish government. Despite this, the estimated unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds was 8.9 per cent in the period October 2021 to September 2022, and the economic inactivity rate was 36.4 per cent.
The new research suggests that the thinking habits and thinking patterns of individual young people could be an important barrier to securing and sustaining employment, education or training places.
The study involved over 1,000 young people from six schools in one Scottish council area. The participants - who had a mean age of 16 - were asked 11 questions relating to their career prospects, perceived barriers to success, accessible support from family and friends, and other factors that may influence outcomes.
Keith Topping, a professor of educational and social research at the University of Dundee and one of the study’s authors, said: “Our results show that high school students from areas of higher deprivation were more likely to report that a post-secondary career was going to be difficult for them, and that circumstances were getting in the way of their choices.
“This is a huge waste of talent and human potential. It also leaves those involved vulnerable to serious negative, long-term health and wellbeing consequences. The research gives a new explanation for this serious social justice problem in terms of individual differences in young people.
“These findings are important and novel because many previous research and policy initiatives have focused on the identification and removal of external economic barriers to employment success after school.”
Professor Topping added: “Our research focuses instead on the barriers within the thinking of vulnerable young people. This offers a new way of intervening to help level the playing field for those young people at greatest risk of being unable to take up the Young Person’s Guarantee.”
The research shows that young women leaving school in the most economically disadvantaged communities in Scotland may be among the students most vulnerable to a self-fulfilling pessimistic view about their career prospects after school.
Study co-author Dr Walter Douglas, an educational psychologist, said: “Female students, in particular, may benefit from specific interventions which help them to develop their levels of optimism about their career prospects.
“At the same time, male students may benefit from interventions to increase the number and security of the attachment relationships they have with people they trust to discuss their career.”
The research has resulted in an evidence-based assessment tool called the School Leaver Assessment Scale. This free resource can help teachers work directly with young people, focusing on their thinking patterns.
The paper has been published in the Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology.
