Vulnerable Young Adult´s Life Course Transitions to and within Adult Life. Changing Contexts – Social isolation or Social Integration?

Author(s):

Rune Kvalsund(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

14 SES 05 A, Vulnerable Young Adult´s Life Course Transitions

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-23

13:30-15:00

Room:

K3.21

Chair:

Linda Mary Hargreaves

Contribution

Background.The aim of this article is to study aspects of informal social learning over time. Reviewing European educational research longitudinal studies following vulnerable young persons over a period of 20 years as in the present study of of what influence face-to-face (FTF) and internet mediated (IM) social relations, hardly exist. This study is an intermediate sized compared with large quantitative cohort studies (Bynner & Wadsworth, 2011) and qualitative studies of transitions to adulthood following small scale biographical approach(Henderson, Holland, McGrellis, Sharpe & Thomson, 2007).In Norway, it is compulsory for children and youth (aged 6–16 years) to attend school. For the yearly age cohort, about 95% of the pupils leaving lower secondary school in the spring term start upper secondary school in the autumn term. School occupy a very large part of children´s time every day. This heavy child and youth cultural institutionalisation of childhood represents a decrease in (FTF)-interactions with persons from the local community. The goal is to qualify the young for life in society by paradoxically keeping children and youth at classroom desks and away from community ‘outside’ for many years of their lives. The priority placed on introducing instrumental, abstract competitive and individual (PISA)-inspired learning of school subjects seems to be poorly supported by research (see e.g. Meyer & Benavot 2013) – and in conflict with broader goals for life e.g. being socially and morally educated, as formulated in the general part of the national curriculum plan.The increasingly higher age of completion of initial schooling postpones youths’ labour market entry. There are fewer jobs for individuals who are unskilled, which leads to a higher risk of social marginalisation in times when demands for relational skills are increasing in work life. These contextual changes are increasingly becoming challenges – especially if enforced individualism (i.e. choosing or deciding one’s own identity) defines the process (Kvalsund & Hargreaves 2014).
Theoretical perspectives.Analyses of transitions frequently draw upon two complementary fields of knowledge: lifespan psychology and life course sociology. The former includes the proximal context (e.g. family and social relationships); the latter discusses more distal features (e.g. structural and cultural context) in addition to studying historical change over time. The life course theory refers to a perspective with a focus on the connection between individual lives and the historical and social context in which these lives unfold. This perspective offers a socio-cultural re-construction of transitions between arenas and trajectories adding up to a person´s life course for young people with special educational needs (SEN) (Diewald & Mayer 2009; Elder & Giele 2009).
Trajectories and life coursse studied in social science has already happened. They are historical. Frame factor theoretical thinking points to the fact that outcomes in life (results) therefore can be understood only by re-constructing prior conditions and processes that have led to these results (Dahlöf 1971). Network theory is a complementary perspective (Wasserman & Faust 1994, Putnam, 2000, Scott 2009). A network typology is developed by combining high and low level of social network size and social network density into four categories: Isolation, Bridging, Bonding. This is an important dependent variable of the study.
It is important to recognize that chances and misfortunes are unpredictable elements that can cause new chains of events and make changes more complex and, ultimately, have a crucial influence on the life course. This assumption enhances the relevance of a critical realism perspective in our analyses (Bashkar & Danermark 2006). Changes in the patterns of social relationships and networks of vulnerable young persons over time are very complex and would be understood through multilayered (individual as well as contextual) explanatory mechanisms.

Method

The design of the study is longitudinal, prospective and quantitative. Data presented were collected from the 1995 cohort of students diagnosed with Special Educational Needs (SEN) who attended upper secondary schools in six Norwegian counties. At the age of 36 to 37 years 253 of these individuals were interviewed by telephone or answered postal questionnaires. In the present paper this is called the analytic sample. The response rate was only 33% of the original follow-up sample. However, the response rate was 68.6% of the 369 individuals who were then available. The schools that originally kept lists of the names and identification numbers of the students, would not or could not provide 118 names when the interview stage began. Another problem was that the Data Inspectorate allowed us to contact only those participants who in the 2007 survey had consented to remain in the longitudinal study. In addition, 13 of the participants died during the period under investigation (cf. Myklebust, Båtevik, Kvalsund and Bele (2016), for further details). A challenge in conducting longitudinal research is risk of data bias due to attrition. However, this is accounted for by using the analysis of attrition (studying changes in central variables). Another main concern is the gradually decreasing sample size when applying logistic regression analysis. Despite a lack of general agreement as to how to judge the model to be constructed, the approach previously taken by Hosmer & Lemeshow (2000) and O’Connell & Amico (2010: 227) will be adopted to establish an acceptable risk of flaws in the analysis. The independent variables are divided into individual factors or covariates, which are based on difficulties/disabilities (expert evaluation) at the beginning of upper secondary school (T1). These are proximal variables/covariates. Other independent variables are more distal in time i.e. contextual factors changing over time, which refer to the family situation and the school situation – factors, which enhance or reduce the potential for relational formation in the transition to and within adult life. Other independent variables from the school context is commotion and restlessness during class; conflict with class mates and teacher as well as being in a special class or not, and having a teacher assistant or not. Gender is included as an independent variable. Following the principle of parsimony, an analytic model is developed by reducing the number of variables and constructing additive variables if necessary.

Expected Outcomes

The general model of analysis expresses our understanding of how the phenomenon should be theoretically justified using variables that reflect contextual changes over time – from a youth-cultural school situation to a situation with their own family and children and later a situation encapsulated by digital invasion of FBT – for vulnerable young adults. In the present study, logistic regression analysis with dichotomised dependent variables is chosen as analytical method. It is usually employed in predicting whether something will happen or not, such as being socially isolated, having full-time work, dropping out of school, using the new ‘social’ media - or experiencing any phenomenon that can be expressed as an event/nonevent. In a longitudinal study such as the present one, covariates or independent variables with different time distance to the dependent variable will be analysed in order to decide what variables have the relative strongest explanatory power and influence on social isolation and integration of vulnerable young adults. This includes analysis of social networks in the form of face-to-face relations as well as face-less internet mediated relations. The expected outcome is to publish the analysis in a Nordic or European scholarly journal. The presentation at ECER 2017 in Copenhagen will mainly refer to the results of the analysis of 2015 data.

References

Bhaskar, R., & B. Danermark. 2006. “Metatheory, Interdisciplinarity and Disability Research: A Critical Realist Perspective.” Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research 8 (4): 278–297. Bele, I. V.& Kvalsund, R. 2016. A longitudinal study of social relationships and networks in the transition to and within adulthood for vulnerable young adults at ages 24, 29 and 34 years: compensation, reinforcement or cumulative disadvantages? European Journal of Special Needs Education 2016. Volume 31(3): 314-329. Bynner, J. & M. Wadsworth. 2011: Generation and change in perspective. In Wadsworth and Bynner (eds). A Companion to Life Course Studies. The social and historical context of the Britsih cohort studies. Oxon: Routledge. Dahlöf, U. 1971. Ability Grouping, Content Validity and Curriculum Process Analysis. New York: Teacher College Press. Diewald, M., & K. U. Mayer. 2009. The sociology of the life course and lifespan psychology: Integrated paradigm or complementing pathways? Advances in Life Course research,14: 5-14. Elder, G. H., & J. Z. Giele. 2009. “Life Course Studies: An Evolving Field.” In Elder, G.H. & J. Z. Giele, (eds)The Craft of Life Curse Research,): 1–24. New York: The Guilford Press. Henderson,S., J. Holland, S. McGrellis, S. Sharpe & R. Thomson (2007): Inventing adulthood. A biographical approach to youth transitions. London: Sage. Hosmer, D. H., & S. Lemeshow. 2000. Applied Logistic Regression. Hoboken, NJ:John Wiley & Sons. Kvalsund, R. 2004. “Inclusion – In Disabling Schools. Research from the National Evaluation of the 1994 Reform of Upper Secondary Education in Norway.” Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research 6 (2): 151–181. Kvalsund, R., & I.V. Bele. 2010b. “Students with Special Educational Needs - Social Inclusion or Marginalisation? Factors of Risk and Resilience in the Transition Between School and Early Adult Life.” Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 54 (1): 15–35. Kvalsund, R., & L. Hargreaves. 2014. “Theory as the source of ‘research footprint’ in rural settings.” In White, S. and Corbett, M. (eds). Doing Educational Research in Rural Settings. Methodological Issues, international perspectives and practical solutions: 41-57. New York: Routledge. O`Connell, A. A., & K. R. Amico. 2010. “Logistic Regression”. In Hancock, G.R. and R.O. Mueller, (eds). The Reviewers Guide to Quantitative Methods for the Social Sciences: 221-240. London: Routledge. Putnam, R. D. 2000. Bowling Alone. The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon and Shuster. Scott, J. (2009). Social Network Analysis. London: Sage. Wasserman, S., & K. Faust. 1994. Social Network Analysis. Methods and Applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Author Information

Rune Kvalsund (presenting / submitting)

Volda University College

Faculty of social science and history

Volda

Search the ECER Programme

Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
Search for authors and in the respective field.
For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.