Values, Health and Well-Being of Young Europeans Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET)

Marja Hult (), Minna Kaarakainen and Deborah De Moortel
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Marja Hult: Department of Nursing Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, 70211 Kuopio, Finland
Minna Kaarakainen: Department of Health and Social Management, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies, University of Eastern Finland, 70211 Kuopio, Finland
Deborah De Moortel: Interface Demography, Department of Sociology, Vrije University Brussels, 1050 Brussels, Belgium

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 6, 1-22

Abstract: Youth unemployment is a problem that undermines young people’s health and well-being and is also a concern for their immediate communities and society. Human values predict health-related behaviour; however, this relation is very little studied and not examined earlier among NEET (not in employment, education or training) young people. This study aimed to explore the association between four higher-order human values (conservation, openness to change, self-enhancement, self-transcendence), self-rated health (SRH) and subjective well-being (SW) among NEET young men and women (n = 3842) across European regions. Pooled European Social Survey data from 2010–2018 were used. First, we run linear regression analysis stratified by European socio-cultural regions and gender. Then, multilevel analyses by gender with interactions were performed. The results show expected variation in value profiles across genders and regions and corresponding differences in SRH and SW. Significant associations between values and SRH and SW were found among both genders and across the regions; however, the results did not entirely confirm the expectations about the “healthiness” of specific values. More likely, prevailing values in societies, such as the social norm to work, might shape these associations. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the factors affecting NEETs’ health and well-being.

Keywords: European Social Survey; Human Values Scale; NEET; self-rated health; subjective well-being unemployment; young (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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