Youth transitions, precarity and well-being: an analysis of the forms and effects of precarity on the emotional well-being of young people
Abstract
This article addresses the labor, social, and economic factors affecting youth mental health. Specifically, it examines the effect of employment precarity on the emotional well-being of young people.We develop a typology of youth socioeconomic configurations applying Multiple Correspondence and Cluster Analysis to identify how employment precarity interacts with other social determinants of mental health, such as economic insecurity and the processes of emancipation and family transition, shaping realities that protect or hinder the emotional well-being of young people. The results show that adverse labor situations (both unfavorable employment conditions and unemployment or exclusion from the labor market) are associated with greater emotional distress among young people, especially when precarity becomes chronic in their work trajectory and if class position and family-residential strategies fail to prevent it from being accompanied by economic insecurity. The article concludes by emphasizing the need to intervene structurally in the realm of social rights and securities to improve youth mental health.
Keywords
Precarious employment, Emotional wellbeing, Youth transitions, Economic insecurity, Mental health, YouthReferences
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