Rural NEETs' hope across the COVID-19 pandemic: A bioecological longitudinal mapping

Abstract

My aim is to map the socioecology of rural emergent adults Not in Employment, nor in Education or Training (NEET)'s hope during the COVID-19 pandemic period. The study involved 213 participants (M age = 26.35; DP = 4.15; 66.20% women) in a three-wave longitudinal study running between June 2020 and June 2021, in The Azores Islands, Portugal. Inspired by the bioecological model and using a linear mixed model approach, I found that: (i) female NEETs presented a significantly worse evolution of hope dimensions levels compared to men; (ii) while inactive NEETs' agency estimates increased as a result of an increment in Public Employment Services' (PES) support, unemployed NEETs' estimates decreased over time to the point that they were below inactive NEETs' agency rates at higher levels of PES support; and (iii) at higher levels of collectivism, unemployed NEETs showed more positive and significant estimates of perceived ability to achieve goals compared to inactive NEETs, conversely to what happened at lower levels of perceived collectivism. These results show the need to better tailor PES' services and interventions to different types of NEETs, addressing structural inequalities (e.g., gender gap) or the role of service digitalization for rural NEETs' different subgroups.