Understanding affluent male NEETs (not in employment, education or training) by choice: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

Social scientists have sought to understand young people who are NEET (16-24 year olds not in employment, education and training) in order to tackle social exclusion. Psychological research has been hampered by conceptual difficulties owing to the diversity of entry paths into NEET Following from Serracant (2015) this research aims to focus on a subset of NEETs, affluent males who choose not to work, study or train to better understand their disposition not to do so. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of 8 interviews with affluent male NEETs by choice posited 6 superordinate themes (Working Expectations, Incapabilities, Assisted Living, Alienation, Fragmented Intentionality, The NEET Lifestyle: Sovereignty and Stasis) that centred upon the participants feelings of incapability with the perceived demands of the working world, and the feeling of estrangement from the peers, family and society owing to their feeling trapped in a stunted developmental pathway. Implications of these findings for counselling psychology and the field of NEET and youth transitions research are discussed.