Unraveling the school-to-work transition of non-engaged youth: A continuous-time Markov chain analysis

Steven Sek-yum Ngai, Chau-kiu Cheung, Yuen-hang Ng, Bong Joo Lee, Véronique Dupéré, Miao Wang, Qiushi Zhou, Chen Chen, Yunjun Li, Laing-ming Wong and Elly Ngai-hin Yu

Children and Youth Services Review, 2025, vol. 172, issue C

Abstract: It is widely acknowledged that school-to-work transitions (SWTs) for non-engaged youth (NEY) often involve not just one status change but multiple status changes, and are frequently dynamic, nonlinear, and complex. However, less attention has been paid to analyzing and visualizing the transition from one status to another, especially under different interventions, within the SWT process. In our study, we utilized longitudinal data from a sample of 228 NEY aged 14–29 (M = 18.90; 48.25 % males) in Hong Kong to examine the changes in transitional status among NEY using Markov chain analysis. Additionally, we compared the changes in the transitional statuses between NEY who received only information-oriented interventions and those who received both information-oriented and experiential interventions. Our analysis presents a transition probability matrix that quantifies transition probabilities among not only conventional education and employment statuses but also NEY’s new pursuits, such as fill-in jobs, serious leisure development (SLD), and vocational education and training (VET). Additionally, our study highlights the significance of the fill-in job, VET, and SLD statuses, which showcase their multiple, complex, and critical functions deserving further attention. Furthermore, our research found a synergistic effect of combining the information-oriented and experiential interventions that bring about positive outcomes in terms of multiple status changes. In sum, our findings offer a nuanced yet comprehensive perspective for understanding NEY’s dynamic and complex transitions among different SWT statuses, shedding light on the varying multiple status changes under distinct interventions.

Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740925001367
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:172:y:2025:i:c:s0190740925001367

DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2025.108253

Access Statistics for this article

Children and Youth Services Review is currently edited by Duncan Lindsey

More articles in Children and Youth Services Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().