Origins of Social Exclusion: Risk Factors Affecting Young Children

The processes and the outcomes of social exclusion begin early in life and are manifested at all stages of life, producing a marginalised existence in adulthood, the routes to and outcomes of which may take a number of forms. These include: poor acquisition of basic skills; early leaving from education without qualifications; early labour market entry problems; including jobs without training, casual work and unemployment, teenage pregnancy; trouble with the police; drug and alcohol abuse; criminal convictions; poor physical and, especially, mental health; lack of engagement with the social and political functions of citizenship.