Nearly 15% of youth in New Orleans have been labeled “socially disconnected” from formal educational and economic systems (Babineau et al. in No longer invisible: Opportunity youth in New Orleans, http://www.thecoweninstitute.com.php56-17.dfw3-1.websitetestlink.com/uploads/OY-Data-Guide-2016-Revised-FINAL-1506966101.pdf , 2016). Socially disconnected youth face barriers to social, psychological, and economic well-being (Mendelson et al. in Public Health Rep 133:54S–64S, 2018). While there has been attention to the detrimental impacts associated with isolation in adolescence, there is a limited examination of how social isolation manifests in the lives of disconnected youth in urban communities. Data were collected from six focus groups at three youth-serving agencies in the urban south. Participants were aged 16–24 (n = 39), mixed gender, and the majority identified as African American. We utilized a thematic content analysis approach that involved multiple rounds of inductive coding. Youth reported an overarching theme of “staying to oneself’ or self-isolation. Youth constructed isolation as a complex cognitive and physical process utilized to stay safe from community and interpersonal violence. Self-isolation functioned as a tool of self-protection and as being essential to surviving and thriving amidst adversity. The consequences of self-isolation include perceptions that participants are alone to deal with life’s challenges and purposeful disengagement from community life. These findings offer a reframing of isolation that deviates from a good/bad binary to a more expansive understanding of the myriad ways isolation manifests in the lives of disconnected youth. While social service agencies aim to reconnect youth economically and academically, these findings underscore the importance of addressing upstream drivers of social disconnectedness, as well as integrating healing-centered clinical interventions.

中文翻译：

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“这就是为什么我呆在自己身边”：边缘化青年意义的社会脱节过程

新奥尔良近 15% 的青年被贴上了与正规教育和经济系统“社会脱节”的标签（Babineau 等人在不再隐形：新奥尔良的机会青年，http://www.thecoweninstitute.com.php56-17 .dfw3-1.websitetestlink.com/uploads/OY-Data-Guide-2016-Revised-FINAL-1506966101.pdf，2016 年）。与社会脱节的青年在社会、心理和经济福祉方面面临障碍（Mendelson 等，Public Health Rep 133:54S–64S，2018 年）。虽然人们已经注意到与青春期孤立相关的不利影响，但对社会孤立如何在城市社区中孤立青年的生活中表现出来的研究却很有限。数据来自城市南部三个青年服务机构的六个焦点小组。参与者年龄在 16-24 岁之间（n = 39），男女混合，大多数被认定为非裔美国人。我们使用了一种主题内容分析方法，该方法涉及多轮归纳编码。青年报告的总体主题是“独处”或自我隔离。青年将孤立构建为一个复杂的认知和身体过程，用于保护社区和人际暴力。自我隔离是一种自我保护的工具，对于在逆境中生存和发展至关重要。自我隔离的后果包括认为参与者独自应对生活挑战和有目的地脱离社区生活。这些发现提供了对孤立的重新定义，从好的/坏的二元论出发，更广泛地理解孤立在脱节青年的生活中表现出来的无数方式。