Adolescence Mental Health Disorders and Precarious School-to- Work Trajectories: The Role of Family Background and Gender

Abstract

This article investigates the role of family socio-economic status (SES) as a buffer for adolescents with mental health disorders (MHDs) against entering precarious school-to-work trajectories. We follow a cohort born in Norway in 1992 from the age of 16–25 using data from administrative registers. We find that externalizing disorders, to a higher degree than internalizing disorders (registered in the 16–18 age range), are associated with subsequent precarious school-to-work trajectories (measured from January 2011 to December 2017) for both genders. In boys, high family SES seems to buffer the negative impact of externalizing disorders on enter- ing precarious school-to-work trajectories, but not for internalizing disorders. In contrast, in girls, high-SES families partly buffer the negative impact of internalizing disorders, but not for externalizing disorders. Thus, this paper broadens the cur- rent perspective on how the impact of MHDs on entering school-to-work trajecto- ries is interrelated with social class and gender.