Introduction

In school, youths learn not only academic knowledge but also social norms through relationships with their peers and teachers. However, some youths drop out of school for various reasons, and in Korea, these youths are called out-of-school youth by the Act on Support for Youth out of School, which was enacted in 2014. According to the Academic Discontinuation Status (2020) provided by the Korea Educational Development Institute, the discontinuation rates of high school students between 2015 and 2019 were 1.3% (22,554 students), 1.4% (23,741 students), 1.5% (24,506 students), 1.6% (24,978 students), and 1.7% (23,894 students), respectively, showing a steady increase over the past five years. Dropping out of school during adolescence can interfere with acquiring the knowledge and skills needed throughout life, which may lead to personal and social difficulties (Kwon, 2020). Out-of-school youth can feel lonely without future plans or daily structures because they are away from the fence of school (McHugh, 2015). As a result, Out-of-school youths who dropped out of high school were less satisfied with their lives and reported more social despair and psychological distress than high school graduates (Kortering et al., 1997). Also, Out-of-school youths showed increased levels of depression, self-deprecation, and anxiety (Kaplan et al., 1994). In fact, a study by Baek and Lim (2014) found that 46.5% of the out-of-school youths they investigated experienced depression, compared with 26.7% of in-schooling youths (Park & Kim, 2016).

Parenting and personal variables are representative factors related to depression among out-of-school youths. Several studies verified that one’s parenting style is a key predictor of the mental health of an adolescents. Among the parenting style, parental abuse is a concept that includes physical and emotional abuse by parents (Glaser, 2002), and it has been shown that adolescents experience anxiety or become depressed in response to parental abuse (Hollist et al., 2009). Specifically, there is a significant positive relationship between parental physical abuse and depression among adolescents (Salimath & Raddi, 2020). Other studies have shown that adolescents raised in homes where physical abuse is present are more susceptible to major depression than those raised in homes where it is not (Kaplan et al., 1998). Emotional abuse has also been found to have a significant relationship with depression among adolescents. It has been found that the emotional abuse of adolescents increases the level of anxiety and stress among these individuals and has a positive effect on the onset of depression (Ameli et al., 2017; Kaiser & Malik, 2015). Kim (2018) reported that parental abuse and neglect had a positive effect on both depression and anxiety of out-of-school youths. In other studies, parental abuse has been shown to have a direct impact on depression and anxiety among out-of-school youths (Kim & Lee, 2018). In summary, just as parental abuse affects depression in in-schooling youths, out-of-school youths also experience depression due to parental abuse.

Among personal variables, self-esteem, ego-resilience, and self-efficacy are known as representative protective factors of depression. In fact, a number of studies have shown that self-esteem, ego-resilience, and self-efficacy can effectively lower the incidence of depression in adolescents (Hjemdal et al., 2007; Yaacob et al., 2009; Joshi et al., 2009). In particular, ego-resilience is a well-known protective factor for adolescent depression. This factor refers to the ability to adapt one’s behavior in a variety of contexts (Philippe et al., 2011), thereby allowing the individual to adapt and cope with external and internal stressors faster. A study with high school students found that ego-resilience was negatively associated with depression and anxiety (Hjemdal et al., 2011). In other studies, adolescents who reported high levels of ego-resilience showed significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms than those who reported low levels of ego-resilience (Hjemdal et al., 2007; Moljord et al., 2014). This suggests that ego-resilience reduces the risk of depression in adolescence. Ego-resilience acts as a protective factor not only for in-schooling youths, but also for out-of-school youths’ depression. According to recent studies, ego-resilience was negatively associated with depression in out-of-school adolescents (Kwon, 2020; Won & Lee, 2021).

Past studies have tended to focus on individual factors and parenting variables related to adolescent depression. However, to explain the depression of out-of-school youths, it is necessary to understand the characteristics and circumstances of these individuals. Out-of-school youths tend to be perceived as troublemakers or failures compared with ordinary youths who attend regular schools. This is because of the social stigma that out-of-school youths experience and the social atmosphere that values academic achievement more than mental wellbeing (Kim, 2019; Park & No, 2016). In addition, out-of-school youths are blind spots for career support. Since 2011, career guidance counselors have been assigned to middle schools and high schools in Korea, and career guidance and counseling for students have been conducted in earnest. In 2015, as the Career Education Act was enacted and, at the same time, the Enforcement Decree of the Career Education Act and the Enforcement Rule of the Career Education Act were implemented, the career education of schools was systematized and revitalized (Park, 2016). However, since career support is provided through schools, it is virtually difficult for out-of-school youths to receive such support. In fact, according to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Survey (2018), prejudice (39.6%) and difficulty finding a career (28.0%) ranked 1st and 2nd among difficulties faced by out-of-school youths.

Social stigma is the extreme displeasure of an individual or group regarding various characteristics that distinct from other members of a society (Latalova et al., 2014). Social stigma has been found to be related with depression (Jacoby & Austin, 2007; Mickelson & Williams, 2008; Rybarczyk et al., 1995; Simbayi et al., 2007). Because Korean society is an education-oriented society, it has a negative view of adolescents dropping out of school (Bae, 2020). Out-of-school youths are described as “misfits” simply because they dropping out of school and suffer from prejudice and stereotypes in society (McCaul et al., 1992; McHugh, 2015). Since adolescence is the most sensitive period for stigma (Lynch et al., 2021), it is necessary to pay attention to the social stigma perceived by out-of-school youth. A study by Kwon (2020) found that the level of social stigma perceived by out-of-school youth increased over time, and this perceived social stigma increases depressive symptoms.

Swanson and Woike (1997) defined career barriers as conditions or events that make career progress difficult within individuals or environments, and included the concepts of internal and external barriers. Internal barriers refer to psychological barriers, such as lack of self-confidence or motivation, while external barriers refer to barriers found in the environment, such as poverty or lack of access to education (Creed et al., 2004). Out-of-school youths seem to experience both internal and external barriers. Because out-of-school youths do not belong to schools, they often worry and have fears about the future in the course of their career explorations. In addition, family discord, psychological problems, and delinquency, which are the common reasons for school interruption, can also be seen as career obstacles for out-of-school youths (Yoon et al., 2013). A study of high school students showed that the higher the perception of career barriers, the higher the level of depression (Son, 2014). A study with out-of-school youths found that the career barriers perceived by out-of-school youths increases the level of depression (Kim, 2019).

Among sociodemographic variables, gender, age, and family economic status in particular have been found to be related to adolescent depression. In previous studies, female adolescents exhibited higher levels of depression than male adolescents (Schraedley et al., 1999; Petersen et al., 1991; Dardas et al., 2018). Moreover, Pullen et al. (2000) found that the incidence of depression increased with age among 12- to 16-year-olds, while Bearman and Stice (2008) made similar observations with 13- to 16-year-olds. Furthermore, the economic status of the family has been found to be closely related to the mental health of adolescents. The subjective socioeconomic status consistently predicts depression in adolescents (Korhonen et al., 2017; Quon & McGrath, 2014).

Given that previous studies on depression in adolescents have mainly focused on in-schooling youths, this study is expected to contribute to a better understanding of depression in out-of-school youths. In this study, the relevance of various variables on depression in out-of-school youths could be confirmed. In particular, this study is significant in that it adds career barriers and social stigma variables that have not been studied much before, but are very closely related to the situation of out-of-school youth. This study examined the relevance of parental abuse, ego-resilience, social stigma, career barriers, and depressive symptoms among out-of-school youth after controlling for gender, age, and family economic status. This study proposes the following hypotheses. Hypothesis 1: Parental abuse is positively related to depressive symptoms. Hypothesis 2: Ego-resilience is negatively related to depressive symptoms. Hypothesis 3: Social stigma is positively related to depressive symptoms. Hypothesis 4: Career barriers is positively related to depressive symptoms.

Methods

Participants and Survey

This study used data from the second wave of the Dropout Youth Panel Survey (2014), which was conducted by the National Youth Policy Institute of Korea. The Dropout Youth Panel Survey was conducted with adolescents who had discontinued schoolwork in regular middle schools and general/specialized high schools (including those who had stopped and had returned to school). 776 panels were gathered in the first wave. Panels were recruited through lists provided by schools, vocational training institutes, alternative schools, GED academies, and counseling & welfare centers for youth. 599 panels were recruited in the second wave. This is the number of responses from 77.2% of the panels recruited in the first wave. In the second wave of the survey, one-on-one face-to-face interviews were conducted by professional surveyor. The procedure of the one-on-one face-to-face interview is as follows. First, the subjects were contacted to confirm whether or not they would participate in the survey. Afterwards, a one-on-one face-to-face interview was conducted with a professional researcher using a structured questionnaire. After completing the questionnaires, they were sealed for confidentiality and collected by the ones who conducted the surveys. In this study, data from 522 high school school-age adolescents were used.

Measures

Depressive Symptoms

To measure the depressive symptoms of respondents, ten items rated on a 4-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 4 = strongly agree) that had been developed by Lee et al. (2011) were used for this study. Higher total scores were associated with more depressive symptoms. Examples of these ten items are as follows: “I do not have much energy,” “I cry often,” and “I do not think the future is hopeful.” Cronbach’s alpha for this scale in this study was 0.899.

Family Economic Status

To measure the family economic status of respondents, one items rated on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = very poor, 7 = very rich) were used, which had been developed by Yoon et al. (2013). Higher total scores were associated with higher perceived family economic status. One item is as follows: “Which of the following do you consider your family economic status?”

Parental Abuse

To measure parental abuse faced by respondents, four items rated on a 4-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 4 = strongly agree) were used, which had been developed by Lee et al. (2012). Higher total scores were associated with stronger parental abuse. Examples of these four items are as follows: “When parents get angry, they pick up anything around them and hit me,” “My parents (guardians) beat me to the extent that my body is bruised or hurt,” “My parents (guardians) say harsh words or swear to me.” Cronbach’s alpha for this scale in this study was 0.909.

Ego-Resilience

To measure the level of ego-resilience of respondents, five items rated on a 4-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 4 = strongly agree) were used, which had been developed by Kim et al. (2010). Higher total scores were associated with higher levels of ego-resilience. Examples of these five items are as follows: “I am a very energetic person,” “I like to try new things that I had not usually done well,” and “I can confidently say that I am a strong-willed person.” Cronbach’s alpha for this scale in this study was 0.739.

Social Stigma

To measure perceived stigma, eight of the ten items that Joo (2002) revised from the stigmatization scale developed by Harvey (2001) were used. These eight items are rated on a 4-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 4 = strongly agree). Higher total scores were associated with a higher level of perceived social stigma. Examples of these eight items are as follows: “I do not feel that I am being treated like a human being in society,” “I feel I am treated differently in my relationships with people,” and “I feel that society sees me as problematic.” Among these items, “I feel comfortable in society” was reversed scored. Cronbach’s alpha for this scale in this study was 0.825.

Career Barriers

To measure career barriers, thirteen items that Joo (2002) revised from the career disability scale developed by Kim (2018) for college students were used. These thirteen items were rated on a 4-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 4 = strongly agree). Higher total scores were associated with higher career barriers. Examples of these thirteen items are as follows: “I am still not sure what career fields I can do well,” “I am not sure what people actually do in various career fields,” and “There are financial difficulties in doing what I want to do.” Among these items, “I know a lot of information about occupations to choose from” was reversed scored. Cronbach’s alpha for this scale in this study was 0.865.

Analysis

Descriptive statistics were calculated and a Pearson’s correlation analysis was performed using the software SPSS version 23.0. In addition, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to verify the relationship between the study variables. In the first stage of the analysis, gender, age, and family economic status were inserted, and in the second stage, parental abuse and ego-resilience were inputted. In the third stage, social stigma and career barriers were included.

Results

Descriptive Statistics

The demographical characteristics of the participants are presented in Table 1. In terms of demographic characteristics, 313 of the survey participants were male (60%), 209 were female (40%), 141 were 17 years old (27%), 235 were 18 years old (45%), 146 were 19 years old (28%), and the average age was 18.01 years old.

Table 1 Demographic characteristics N = 522
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Correlation

Table 2 shows the results of the analysis regarding the correlation between the variables. The family economic status was negatively correlated with parental abuse (r = − .10, p < .05), social stigma (r = − .16, p < .01), career barriers (r = − .35, p < .01), and depressive symptoms (r = − .23, p < .01). Parental abuse was negatively correlated with ego-resilience (r = − .14, p < .01), and positively correlated with social stigma (r = .28, p < .01), career barriers (r = .18, p < .01), and depressive symptoms (r = .24, p < .01). Ego-resilience was negatively correlated with social stigma (r = − .34, p < .01), career barriers (r = − .32, p < .01), and depressive symptoms (r = − .39, p < .01). Social stigma was positively correlated with career barriers (r = .42, p < .01) and depressive symptoms (r = .49, p < .01). Lastly, career barriers were positively correlated with depressive symptoms (r = .54, p < .01).

Table 2 Description statistics and correlations between variables
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Hierarchical Multiple Regression Analysis

Female adolescents reported greater depressive symptoms than male adolescents (β = 0.196, p < .001). The family economic status was negatively related to depressive symptoms (β = − 0.025, p < .001), but age was not significantly related to depressive symptoms. Parental abuse was related to more depressive symptoms (β = 0.170, p < .001), and ego-resilience was related to lower depressive symptoms (β = − 0.340, p < .001). Social stigma (β = 0.247, p < .001) and career barriers (β = 0.336, p < .001) were positively associated with depressive symptoms.

The explanatory amount of gender, age, and family economic status, which were the variables that were input in the first stage of the analysis, was 9.3%. The incremental explanatory amount for parental abuse and ego-resilience in the second stage was 15.7%. Lastly, the incremental explanation of social stigma and career barriers in the third stage was 17.7%. The total explanatory amount of the regression model was 42.7%. The results are presented in Table 3.

Table 3 Hierarchical regression analysis
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Discussions

In this study, gender, family economic status, parental abuse, ego-resilience, social stigma, and career barriers, excluding age, were significantly associated with depressive symptoms among out-of-school adolescents. The main findings of this study are as follows.

Parental abuse was positively related to depressive symptoms among out-of-school youths (Kim, 2018; Kim & Lee, 2018). Parental physical and emotional abuse is likely to cause adolescents to experience depression by creating negative self-identity and impairing self-esteem (Gross & Keller, 1992; Malik & Kaiser, 2016). Similar to previous studies, ego-resilience was observed to have decreased depressive symptoms among out-of-school youths (Kwon, 2020; Lee, 2021). This implies that ego-resilience may be a protective factor in preventing depression among out-of-school youths. Ego-resilience is a trait that can help out-of-school youths effectively cope with various stressful situations in daily life and can contribute to preventing depression (Anyan & Hjemdal, 2016).

The major finding of this study is the independent influence of social stigma and career barriers on the depressive symptoms of out-of-school youths. Out-of-school youths are negatively evaluated and treated unfairly by society in general, such as through exclusion, neglect, and discrimination (McCaul et al., 1992). Out-of-school youths therefore perceive social stigma, which can result in depression (Kwon, 2020). Society should recognize that these individuals have to deal with the negative social stigma by themselves. In addition, since out-of-school youths are unable to receive career education provided by schools, they obtain career-related information mainly from people around them or through the Internet. While such youths can indeed receive career counseling at institutions such as the Youth Counseling and Welfare Center, it is a fact that out-of-school youths do not use such institutions properly because they do not possess adequate information about these institutions (Yoon et al., 2013). This situation makes out-of-school youths feel a career barrier and experience depression due to feelings of uncertainty and anxiety about their future (Kim, 2019).

Lastly, it was found that gender and family economic status were closely related to depressive symptoms among out-of-school youths. Female adolescents showed more depressive symptoms than male adolescents, and a lower family economic status was related to more depressive symptoms. It was reconfirmed that gender and family economic status are also important variables for out-of-school youth depression (Dardas et al., 2018; Korhonen et al., 2017). In this study, age did not significantly predict the depressive symptoms of out-of-school youths, but further research on this point is needed for out-of-school youths of various age groups.

Recommendations for Social Work Practice and Policy

Since studies on adolescent depression were mainly conducted on in-schooling youths, there was a limitation in that studies on factors affecting depression in out-of-school youths were relatively lacking. Therefore, this study is meaningful in that it verified the relevance between parental abuse, ego-resilience, social stigma, career barriers, and depressive symptoms in out-of-school adolescents.

In this study, parental abuse was positively associated with depressive symptoms among out-of-school youths. The results of this study suggest the importance of preventing parental abuse in relation to depressive symptoms in out-of-school youths. Since parental abuse is caused by a lack of a view on childrearing that recognizes and respects the individuality of adolescents (Yang, 2009; Ma et al., 2022), parental education is needed to correct parents’ wrong parenting behavior and values. In addition, when a report of parental abuse is received, close connection and active efforts between the police and youth protection agencies are needed so that the investigation can proceed quickly. Also, Workers at youth shelters and counselors at Youth Counseling and Welfare Center should strive to reduce and prevent depression in out-of-school youth who have experienced parental abuse.

In this study, ego-resilience have been found to be a protective factor for depressive symptoms among out-of-school youths. In particular, social support is important to increase the ego-resilience of out-of-school youths (Ranjan et al., 2019; Taylor et al., 2014). Having many positive conversations with parents helps to increase the ego-resilience of out-of-school youths, and it is even more effective when families participate in community programs together. It is expected that the support and encouragement of friends and adults around them will be helpful in enhancing the ego-resilience of out-of-school youths. Also, it is necessary to support various programs that help out-of-school youth have optimistic thoughts about their future and confidence in their achievements.

In this study, social stigma and career barriers perceived by out-of-school youths had a positive effect on depressive symptoms. The following are needed to reduce the social stigma and career barriers perceived by out-of-school youths. First, efforts are needed to improve people’s understanding of out-of-school youths. It should be noted that out-of-school youths discontinue school not only due to maladaptation to school but also a wide variety of complex reasons such as family economic difficulties and bullying (Kirazoğlu, 2009; Kishore & Shaji, 2012); this makes them feel as if they have also fallen behind or lost in life. To reduce the career barriers of out-of-school youths, it is first necessary to provide them with information on the various public institutions that can provide them with career support to help them systematically prepare for their future careers. In addition, links need to be established with counseling institutions that can counsel on career-related psychological difficulties, such as feelings of uncertainty and anxiety about the future that out-of-school youths may feel. Professional counselors, social workers, and school-based practitioners can play an important role in providing education to reduce the social stigma of out-of-school youths and provide social networks to alleviate career barriers.

Limitations

The limitations of this study are as follows. First, since this study targeted 17- to 19-year-olds, caution should be taken in applying the results of this study to all out-of-school youths. Second, this study is a cross-sectional analysis study, which has limitations in inferring causal relationships between variables. In future studies, it is necessary to clarify the relationship between the variables.

Conclusion

This study aimed to verify the relationship between parental abuse, ego-resilience, social stigma, career barriers, and depressive symptoms among out-of-school youths after controlling for gender, age, and family economic status. As a result of hierarchical multiple regression analysis, gender, family economic level, parental abuse, ego-resilience, social stigma, and career barriers, excluding age were significantly related to depression in out-of-school youths.

In particular, social stigma and career barriers were found to be closely related to depressive symptoms among out-of-school youths. The suggestions of this study are as follows. Professional counselors, social workers, and school-based practitioners should strive to provide a variety of programs and education to reduce prejudice and stereotypes against out-of-school youth. In addition, various career information should be provided to out-of-school youth, and career counseling should be provided to help them systematically prepare for their future career. The findings of this study suggest that society should be attentive towards the mental health of out-of-school youths, and these findings can be used as basic data for preparing related policies in the future.