Is mental health a predictor for a smooth school-to-work-transition? A 20-month follow-up study of Brussels youth.

The Brussels Capital Region knows consistently high youth unemployment in the aftermath of the 2008 Great Recession. In that context, the aim of this paper is to investigate if the mental health status of young urban labor market entrants affects their school-to-work-transition in the subsequent 20 months. The study is based on a primary data collection among Brussels’ youth in the transition from education to employment (2015; 18- to 29-year-olds; N = 540) combined with administrative follow-up data of 20 months between 2015 and 2017 (N=540). Labour market trajectories during the follow-up period consisted of combinations of the following states: being unemployed, employed as well as participating in active labor market policies such as coaching, training and internship. Our results revealed 6 different school-to-work-trajectories: xxx . A multivariate multinomial logistic regression showed that respondents in “trajectory X,Z, …” had significantly lower mental health than those in “trajectory Y”. These associations were in part mediated by the educational level of the respondents