Unemployed youth and health: Findings from the pilot phase of a longitudinal study

Contemporary research perspectives on the impact of unemployment on health and well-being among young people have tended to focus on a rather narrow range of outcomes, typically those in the mental health domain. The impetus for the proposed longitudinal study, the main dimensions of which are described in this paper, reflects the need for a more comprehensive profiling of the health needs and experiences of young people if effective interventions tailored to their short and long term health needs are to be developed. The proposed study includes variables from a wide range of domains and adopts an interdisciplinary perspective. The feasibility of the approach, both in terms of establishing appropriately stratified samples and determining the acceptability and utility of the measures proposed has been examined during an extensive pilot phase. Findings from the database established during this phase are presented. These focus on multi-dimensional comparisons of health and well-being employed and unemployed young people, the impact of socio-economic status of origin on cardiovascular and other indicators, and the correlates of health and well-being among the unemployed. The results point to the potential complexity of the influences on health status and behaviour and the need to develop comprehensive models of this for research and intervention purposes.