Background
Youth educational disengagement is a growing issue within Australia and around the world. Disengaged young people often exhibit worse physical and mental health outcomes than engaged counterparts, use illicit drugs, engage in delinquent behaviour, and take their own lives at higher rates. Disengaged students have higher rates of drop out and a higher risk of classification of NEET (not in education, employment, or training) status. Current solutions are based on improved educational outcomes and engagement. However, the educational issues with disengagement do not encompass the range of issues faced by this population. Best practices need to be developed from a mental health perspective in this developing population, as school attendance allows access to many public health interventions and initiatives.
Method
Participants were recruited from PUSH!, a voluntary community-lead re-engagement program based around bicycle maintenance. Using semi-structured one-on-one interviews, this study listened to the stories of PUSH participants. The data was collected using walking interviews and analysed using framework analysis. Analyses were informed by both a priori concepts from psychological empowerment theory and emergent concepts from the data. Comparisons were made between participants based on education experiences.
Results
Analyses provided insights into the development of psychological empowerment that young people experience independent of the educational sector, and that participants leveraged less formal mentoring relationships with others in the community.
Conclusion
This study demonstrates the importance of investing in opportunities for less formal mentoring relationships for young people. Such opportunities allow young people to enact agency in their own lives as they develop psychological empowerment. Further engagement may inform targeted investment in both mental and physical health initiatives to better meet the needs of young people involved in a process of school re-engagement.