Italian youth mobility: The case for a Mediterranean model of ‘family-centred’ mobile transitions

This article seeks to advance our understanding of contemporary transnational youth mobility, drawing on the concept ‘mobile transitions’ to explore scholarly approaches to the mobility practices of young Italians moving abroad. We present a critical literature review of the intersections of migration, youth and transition studies to argue that the literature on youth transnational mobility currently features two contrasting models comprising a ‘transitions-focused’ Global South model and an ‘experiential-focused’ Global North model. This bifurcation fails to account for emergent regional models of mobility that may help to sharpen scholarly understandings of a new generation of youth ‘on the move’. We propose an alternative model positioned somewhere along the spectrum between the Global North and Global South models, which we define as the Mediterranean model of ‘family-centred’ transnational youth mobility. This model reflects aspects of both privileged, experiential youth migrations, which tend to undervalue the impact on transitions to adulthood, and economically driven youth migrations, which tend to focus more directly on the economic dimensions of youth to adulthood transitions. The Mediterranean model highlights more broadly how mobility enables and shapes transitions, which are simultaneously driven by both economic imperatives and individual experiential desires, and mediated through family and culture.

Early home-leaving (HL) and educational attainment − The moderating role of HL in the intergenerational transmission of education

Leaving the parental home is a key step in successful transitions to adulthood. Early home-leaving (HL) is associated with lower educational attainment, but the role of early versus later home-leaving in the intergenerational transmission of education has not been assessed in previous research. We used a longitudinal register-based total sample of families in Finland to examine whether the association between parental and offspring education differs between early (below age 19) and later home-leavers, including a comparison between early and later leaving siblings. We found the lower probability of completing any secondary degree among early leavers to be larger among those with lower-educated than higher-educated parents. In contrast, in continuing to tertiary-level education, the educational disadvantage among early leavers was much larger among offspring of the higher-educated parents. Differences by HL across levels of parental education persisted adjustment for other parental and childhood resources, although only modest evidence of moderation was found when comparing early and later leaving siblings. Our findings on weaker intergenerational transmission of education among early leavers with an advantaged background, and accumulation of disadvantage among early leavers with less advantaged background suggest that timing of HL has an independent role in educational inequalities.

‘It’s Been a Massive Struggle’: Exploring the Experiences of Young People Leaving Care During COVID-19

This article explores the experiences of young people leaving state care during COVID-19. Twenty-one young people, predominantly from Wales, engaged in semi-structured interviews and/or contributed poems and artwork conveying their experiences of the pandemic. The data generated offered insights into young people’s daily lives, including their routines and relationships, as well as access to resources and services. The study found stark disparity in young people’s experiences, with some reassured by support responses, and others feeling neglected and forgotten. As an already disadvantaged group, the challenges presented by COVID-19 further hinder young people’s transitions to adulthood. The ‘massive struggles’ faced by some young people reflect immediate difficulties which also have the potential for longer-term impacts. The recommendations of the study, informed by care-experienced young people, seek to positively influence policy and practice.

Overview of a Pilot Health-focused Reentry Program for Racial/Ethnic Minority Probationers ages 18 to 26 in Southern California

There is a significant gap in reentry programming that is tailored to the needs of young adults ages 18 to 26 who are in a unique developmental life stage that involves ongoing maturity in their neurobiology, cognitive development, and social and financial transitions to adulthood and independence. This article describes the structure and approach of a 6-month health-focused reentry program designed for racial/ethnic minority young adult (YA) probationers in Southern California. The UCSD RELINK program includes service navigation and an optional psychoeducation health coaching program to build health literacy, problem-solving, and executive functioning skills relevant across multiple life domains. We describe participant characteristics and service needs at intake. Between 2017 and 2019, 122 YA probationers ages 18 to 26 responded to interviewer-administered baseline surveys. Participants needed basic services including housing, nutrition assistance, employment, and educational/vocational training. Depression and anxiety symptoms, Adverse Childhood Events, trauma, and unmet physical and mental health care needs were pervasive. Given the dearth of research on reentry programming for YA, this article documents the approaches taken in this multi-pronged health-focused reentry program to ensure that the program was tailored to YA reentrants’ comprehensive needs. These data serve to concretely illustrate the range of needs and how YA reentrants view their own health and social needs in the context of multiple competing demands; such data may be useful for program planners and policymakers seeking to advance service delivery for YA minority reentrants.

Pandemic and Typhoon: Positive Impacts of a Double Disaster on Mental Health of Female Students in the Philippines

Humanitarian emergencies pose a great challenge to how all sectors perform their functions in society. In several countries, these emergencies combined the pandemic and other man-made and natural disasters: “double disaster”, which affected the health, safety, and well-being of both individuals and communities. Students are a particularly vulnerable population for mental health problems considering the challenges with their transitions to adulthood. Using narrative analysis, this study explored the impacts of a double disaster on the mental health of students and how they cope up with these emergencies. The results showed that the occurrence of natural disasters during the lockdowns from pandemic brought stress to students in adjusting to distance education, completing academic requirements, and accessing technology for online learning. Participants expressed their anxieties about the spread of the virus in the community, particularly in the disaster evacuation centers with less strictly observed social distancing, insufficient hygiene and sanitation facilities, and lack of basic needs. Participants described their learnings and coping strategies that included helping one another, following the government protocols, finding additional sources of income, using energy for important purposes only, and leaning on faith. The findings of this study would be instrumental in formulating policies and strategic measures that best complement the needs of community members during a double disaster, particularly in addressing the mental health impacts of humanitarian emergencies.

A New Adulthood

This chapter takes a critical lens to the field of youth transitions. The authors argue that the concept of youth as a period of transition has tended to ossify around school-to-work trajectories, obscuring the significance of other life spheres, such as leisure, friendship, and culture. Although youth transitions scholars can, and indeed are, beginning to account for a wider variety of transitions and do attempt to interrogate the impact of class, gender, and race on transition outcomes, the concept of transitions to adulthood underestimates the historically specific nature of youth, and adulthood, and is ill-suited to identifying the life course effects of youth experience. The authors draw on examples from their longitudinal research on two generations of young Australians to introduce a social generational framework that highlights the changing nature of youth and adulthood, as the stalwarts of transition patterns (education into work) are disrupted by trends toward lifelong learning and precarious work. The current generation of young Australians, like their counterparts in many other countries, have to navigate new transition regimes that involve a considerable investment of time and money in education. Yet globally competitive labor markets mean that the pay-off for education is often difficult to attain. These conditions, the authors argue, create a “new adulthood,” which is an outcome of a generational accommodation to the changing rules of the game of transition from education to work. They use this concept to move debate beyond claims that youth is simply an extended transition before adult status is reached.

Youth Work Transitions in the South of Europe

This chapter presents an in-depth review of the literature addressing the work transitions of emerging adults from the South of Europe (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain). These countries were severely hit by the 2008 economic crisis, which strongly impacted youth facing labor market integration. For southern European youth, labor market integration remains as a key transition enabling engagement in other adult roles and responsibilities. To address the work transitions of young people from the South of Europe, the authors (a) outline the specifics of the Mediterranean context influencing these transitions; (b) look into the general patterns and timing of youth work transitions in these countries; and (c) discuss how such transition patterns and timing affect how emerging adults approach and live their lives, in particular how they navigate the ongoing, multiple, and interconnected transitions to adulthood. The chapter concludes by highlighting the impact changing, adverse social contexts have on the ways in which youth construct their pathways to work and adulthood.

“I Want That Life a Lot…How on Earth Do I Get That?” Examining Challenges for Men With Barth Syndrome in Their Transitions to Adulthood

vFor youth with life-limiting chronic illnesses, transitioning to adulthood in line with age-norms may be difficult due to symptom severity and shortened survival. This study explores whether individuals with Barth syndrome (BTHS), a condition uniquely characterized by extreme prognostic uncertainty, experience similar or different challenges compared to youth with other conditions. During focus groups with adults with BTHS ( n = 12) and caregivers ( n = 13), participants reported that the ability to independently manage one’s health condition, the social/emotional impacts of BTHS, and the ability to set goals in the context of future uncertainty challenge their transition to adulthood. This aligns with prior research, indicating that prognostic uncertainty may hinder long-term goal setting in BTHS. Implications of these findings include providing strategies for identifying meaningful alternative goals for individuals with chronic illnesses to target, promoting increased autonomy earlier in youth, and fostering coping strategies to manage non-disease related impacts.