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Racial/ethnic disparities were striking youth disconnection occurred in 6.6% of Asian American, 9.7% of white, 13.7% of Latino, 17.2% of black, and 25.8% of American Indian/Alaska Native young people. 2 In communities where the poverty rate was below 6%, about 1 in 14 young people were disconnected however, in communities where the poverty rate was above 21%, 1 in 5 young people were disconnected. Disconnected youth were nearly twice as likely as connected youth to live in poverty and to receive Medicaid. The 2016 Measure of America data suggested that the probability of disconnection among young people was affected by income, race/ethnicity, and residential environment. Although this decline represents a 20% decrease in the percentage of disconnected youth from 2010 to 2016, an estimated 4.6 million young people were still disconnected in 2016, the most recent year for which data were available. 2 Measure of America reported that the proportion of US teenagers and young adults aged 16-24 who were neither employed nor in school 3 months before each survey declined from 14.7% in 2010 to 11.7% in 2016. Measure of America, a project of the Social Science Research Council, uses data from the American Community Survey (ACS) to develop detailed reports on disconnected youth. Youth Disconnection: Distribution in the Population and Individual and Social Consequencesĭisconnected youth compose a sizable portion of the US population of teenagers and young adults aged 16-24. Third, we offer recommendations for multisector strategies aimed at reducing and preventing youth disconnection. Second, we provide a conceptual model of youth connection and disconnection, which is grounded in ecological theory, life course development concepts, and epidemiological principles. First, we describe the distribution and consequences of youth disconnection in the United States.
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In this article, we view youth disconnection from a public health perspective, dividing our discussion into 3 sections. 3 - 5 These alarming disparities between opportunity youth and their more connected peers represent a public health problem with serious social, economic, and health implications. Relative to their connected contemporaries, opportunity youth have a disproportionate share of problems as they age, including chronic unemployment, poverty, mental health disorders, criminal behaviors, incarceration, poor health, and early mortality. The latter term is preferred by some because it conveys the notion that engaging this group in the educational system and the labor force has potential benefits. 2 These young people are commonly referred to as disconnected youth or opportunity youth. In 2016, nearly 12% of teenagers and young adults aged 16-24 in the United States were both out of school and out of work. 1 Many young people, however, do not obtain adequate levels of these important experiences to support future financial independence and productive careers. During this time, most young people obtain the education and training that will provide the foundation for their occupational trajectories during the rest of adulthood. A public health approach to the problem of opportunity youth would involve developing and investing in youth monitoring data systems that can be coordinated across multiple sectors, consolidating both the delivery and funding of services for opportunity youth, developing policies and programs that encourage engagement of young people, and fostering systematic approaches to the testing and scaling up of preventive and reengagement interventions.Įmerging adulthood-the period between the late teens and early 20s-is a profoundly important developmental stage. In this article, we offer a public health perspective on opportunity youth by describing their distribution in the population and consequences of their disconnection proposing a conceptual model of the issue based on epidemiological principles, life course development concepts, and ecological theory and recommending multisector strategies for preventing disconnection of young people and reengaging opportunity youth. These disconnected young people (ie, opportunity youth) are not only at high risk for long-term emotional, behavioral, and health problems, but they also represent a loss of human capital, with high social and economic costs. Approximately 1 in 9 teenagers and young adults aged 16-24 in the United States is currently disconnected from school and employment.