Reflections on turning 21: Income, gender and ‘adulthood’

Adolescents who experience poor physical and/or mental health are at high risk of disengagement from their expected pathways through education, training, employment and social inclusion. This paper describes the development of a conceptual framework based upon the literature and from the authors' own empirical data to identify the characteristics of hospitalised adolescents who may be disengaging from learning, and the complex interrelated risk and protective factors that influence this process. This framework can be used by health and education professionals to identify adolescents whose future education and wellbeing trajectory is at risk of being compromised by their health condition. The paper also presents some examples to illustrate practical strategies for identifying and addressing educational risk among this adolescent cohort.