A new UCL and University of Essex policy brief has found that teenagers experiencing poor mental health and growing up in deprived areas are significantly more likely to be not in education, employment or training (NEET) in early adulthood. Researchers also found that the relationship between poor adolescent mental health and later NEET status has become stronger among younger generations. Key findings include:

• Among young people with the poorest mental health at age 14, 18.7% were NEET at age 23, compared with 13.4% of those with the best mental health. For those experiencing consistently poor mental health at ages 14 and 17, the figure rose to 21.7%.
• Deprivation was also strongly associated with later NEET status, with 18% of teenagers growing up in the most deprived areas NEET at age 23, compared with 11% of those from the least deprived areas.
• The relationship between mental health and later NEET status appears to have strengthened across generations. Among young people born in 2002, 14% of those with the poorest mental health were subsequently NEET, compared with 6.7% of those with the best mental health, while the association was much weaker among those born a decade earlier.

Researchers are calling for greater investment in young people’s mental health, targeted support in disadvantaged communities and earlier intervention while young people are still at school.