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.     

Convergence in Income Inequality Across Australian States and Territories

Social Indicators Research - An increasing volume of literature has shown that economic freedom is related to life satisfaction. However, life satisfaction may not fully describe well-being because...     

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.     

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...     

High School Is Not Too Late: Developing Girls' Interest and Engagement in Engineering Careers

Although experts increasingly call for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education to begin in middle and elementary schools, a 3‐year intervention beginning with high‐achieving female high school sophomores demonstrated that young women can develop a serious interest in engineering in high school. However, subsequent post‐high school study of the participants showed that interest in engineering was not enough for lower‐income minority women to pursue engineering in college. It should be noted that their decision against pursuing engineering in college was not due to their lack of academic preparation or interest in the field, but to a lack of financial resources and social support for engineering, as well as fears of failure. Career counselors and college recruiters have an important role to play in the recruitment and retention of girls of color in engineering and other STEM college majors, including facilitating support and access to appropriate programs and resources at pivotal times.     

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.     

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.     

The Troubled Families Programme: Learning about policy impact through realist case study research

This article aims to critically explore how qualitative case study research that is founded on realist principles can fundamentally enhance social policy evaluation methodologies and, in turn, provide improved learning for policy makers and practitioners. We suggest that these methodological advantages are accrued through the careful construction of theory-based explanations of “how” policy programmes work thereby addressing the limitations of quasi-experimental methods—namely, a focus on and prioritisation of outcome measures. The paper situates this key argument within wider, long-standing debates about evidence-based policy making and what constitutes “evidence” of impact in social policy. It does so through reflection on the contentious and contradictory knowledge claims that surround the Troubled Families Programme and evaluative claims regarding its efficacy. In conclusion and looking forward, we suggest that there remains much scope to combine “intensive” qualitative case studies with “extensive” quantitative measures within local and national evaluations of complex, multidimensional social policies, such as the Troubled Families Programme.