Disconnected Youth

Policymakers and youth advocates have begun to focus greater attention on young people who are not working or in school. Generally characterized as "disconnected", these youth may also lack strong social networks that provide assistance in the form of employment connections and other supports such as housing and financial assistance. Without attachment to work or school, disconnected youth may be vulnerable to experiencing negative outcomes as they transition to adulthood. Like the existing research, the CRS analysis finds that a greater share of female and minority youth are disconnected. However, the analysis evaluates some other characteristics that have not been widely studied in the existing research. For instance, compared to their peers in the general population, disconnected youth tend to have fewer years of education, and are more likely to live apart from their parents and to have children. Disconnected youth are also twice as likely to be poor than their connected peers. This book provides information about the characteristics of disconnected youth, and the circumstances in which they live. This book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.