ABSTRACT
In our study there is a core of young people whom, for now, we will call 'socially excluded' (see Table A2.10). A brief review of some of the key features in their biographies to date demonstrates the complex and interrelated factors which can precipitate social and economic exclusion: unemployment, low pay, discrimination, lack of support, interrupted schooling, lack of formal qualifications, reduced self-confidence as well as poverty and material disadvantage are all recognized elements involved in exclusion (QPID, 1998). Many of these factors as well as other variables such as the powerful influence of early family disruption have 'strong associations with several of the outcomes in adulthood' (Hobcraft, 1998, p. 2). There is no simple cause and effect relationship at work but nevertheless there are patterns of continuity in exclusion over time and across generations.
