Youth underemployment: A review of research on young people and the problems of less(er) employment in an era of mass education

In this article, we examine the problem of youth underemployment and how it is conceptualised, operationalised and understood within wider sociology, with particular focus on the sociology of youth and youth studies literature. We outline the contours of this body of work, showing how in most cases underemployment is undefined and used as a general term to describe the challenges and inadequacies of the contemporary labour market for young people. Further, we show how despite a lack of clarity, most researchers in this field contend that underemployment is increasing for young people, becoming a normative experience, cutting across class, ethnicity and gender. For some, however, underemployment is a ‘choice’, but as the literature shows, how different groups of young people respond to underemployment varies. In addition, we show how overeducation, another form of underemployment, is being understood by both researchers and young people as a ‘new normal’ rather than being challenged as another flank in the on-going neo-liberalisation and massification of education. We conclude with a call to think through the ideas presented and to develop new understandings of youth underemployment that can facilitate change. The sensitising concept of less(er) employment is proposed as best placed to facilitate this reanimation.     

Ethnic Diversity and Health Outcomes

This study hypothesizes a relationship between ethnic diversity and health outcomes. We explore the effects of ethnic and linguistic heterogeneity (measured by indices of ethnic and linguistic fractionalization) on various health outcomes in a cross-section of 91 countries. We explore outcomes relating to four major categories of health: (1) immunization rates, (2) prevalence of diseases, (3) life expectancy and mortality rates, and (4) health related infrastructure and staff. Across all dimensions examined, evidence suggests that higher heterogeneity is bad for health outcomes. We explore several potential mechanisms which could explain the observed negative effects of ethnic and linguistic diversity on health.     

Dual‐earner parent couples’ work and care during COVID‐19

COVID‐19 and the associated lockdowns meant many working parents were faced with doing paid work and family care at home simultaneously. To investigate how they managed, this article draws a subsample of parents in dual‐earner couples (n = 1536) from a national survey of 2722 Australian men and women conducted during lockdown in May 2020. It asked how much time respondents spent in paid and unpaid labour, including both active and supervisory care, and about their satisfaction with work–family balance and how their partner shared the load. Overall, paid work time was slightly lower and unpaid work time was very much higher during lockdown than before it. These time changes were most for mothers, but gender gaps somewhat narrowed because the relative increase in childcare was higher for fathers. More mothers than fathers were dissatisfied with their work–family balance and partner’s share before COVID‐19. For some the pandemic improved satisfaction levels, but for most they became worse. Again, some gender differences narrowed, mainly because more fathers also felt negatively during lockdown than they had before.     

Gambling and Financial Stress

Social Indicators Research - In recent years, gambling harm has been considered a significant public health concern due to its increasing socioeconomic costs. Although the adverse effects of...     

Social Bookmarking–Repository–Networking: Possibilities for Support of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

Social bookmarking, repositories, networking, and other Web 2.0 technologies have the capacity to engage enormous numbers of ordinary people in networking, sharing, and working with digital resources. The Faculty of Education at The University of Hong Kong has been pioneering new educational applications. Through grants from the University we have developed a social bookmarking and repository system based on Web 2.0 ideas. RISAL—Repository of Interactive Social Assets for Learning has an unrealized potential to support teaching and learning at the University level. It is designed to facilitate and encourage sharing and collaboration of teachers and students with similar interests or learning foci across levels and programs. This form of learning support builds on and encourages the Web 2.0 culture of social networking and contribution of the individual to the community. In addition, the system is designed to incorporate compliance with Hong Kong's Copyright Ordinance (Creative Commons). The authors discuss the RISAL and describe its features and benefits that this system can offer to teaching and learning.     

The use of pregnancy test kits by college students

The self-testing product market is experiencing tremendous growth. Technical breakthroughs are allowing tests to be conducted in the home that at one time were possible only in a clinical laboratory. One of the more rapidly expanding components of the self-testing market is home pregnancy test kits. We conducted a study to obtain information about the use of home pregnancy test kits by college students. Questionnaires were distributed to 1,000 women entering the student health service between October 1 and November 4, 1987. A total of 761 (76.1%) questionnaires were completed and returned. Results indicated that approximately 1 out of 6 respondents (17.2%) had used a pregnancy test kit at least once. Of those who had used a test kit, the majority did so because of the speed or confidentiality of obtaining results. The magnitude of test kit use by this sample suggests that college women should be encouraged to use self-testing products as a supplement to but not as a substitute for professional medical care.     

Trust,Social Networks and Subjective Wellbeing in China

Using data from the World Values Survey, this study examines the associations among trust, social networks and subjective wellbeing in China. We address the endogenous nature of trust and social networks, and examine how these elements of social capital affect subjective wellbeing. We also explore the interplay between trust and social networks. Existing literature suggests that trust and social networks positively impact wellbeing, with one strand of the literature suggesting that in developed countries social capital is a stronger determinant of wellbeing than income. However, we find that this is not the case for China (a developing country) where the effects of trust and social networks on wellbeing are found to be relatively weaker compared to the effect of income.