Journal Article

Exploring the employment experiences of young adults with multiple minoritized identities: A qualitative study focusing on race and non-apparent disabilities

Dain, Natanela, Lindsay, Sally, Hsu, Shaelynn

2024

Overview

Youth with disabilities often encounter many challenges in securing employment. Although the common barriers that youth face are well documented, little is known about the experiences of youth who have multiple minoritized identities in finding and maintaining employment. Youth with disabilities who belong to racial minoritized groups may encounter ableism and racism and other forms of discrimination at work. Exploring the experiences of racial minoritized youth with non-apparent disabilities is important given the growing concern about social inequities that are linked to disadvantage and differential access to resources such as employment. We used a qualitative design involving semi-structured interviews with 19 youth (13 women, 3 non-binary, 3 men), aged 17–30 (mean 23.5 years). An inductive thematic analysis was applied to analyze the data. We identified the following themes: (1) challenges finding and maintaining employment; (2) the extent of safety and comfort with disclosing minoritized identities in the workplace (i.e., comfortable disclosing; uncomfortable disclosing; did not need to disclose and/or hiding identities); (3) workplace discrimination based on minoritized identities (i.e., ableism, racism, ableist racism, gendered ableism, racist and gendered ableism); (4) impact of discrimination (i.e., negative affective outcomes, social and work adjustment, impact on professional development) and coping strategies (i.e., advocacy, networking, peer support); and (5) advice for youth and employers. Our study highlights the extent of racism and ableism that racial minoritized youth with non-apparent disabilities experience in the workplace and the importance of rehabilitation clinicians supporting their inclusion.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Adolescent / Adult / Adults / Advocacy / Arbeitsmarktchance / Autismus / Behavior / Behinderter Mensch / Biology and Life Sciences / Consent / Coping / Coping strategies / Data collection / Disabilities / Disability / Disability studies / Disabled Persons - psychology / Disclosure / Discrimination / Diskriminierung / Employers / Employment / Employment - psychology / Employment discrimination / Epilepsy / Ethnic identity / Ethnische Gruppe / Ethnische Minderheit / Female / Gender / Geschlecht / Handicapped accessibility / Humans / Hörbehinderter Mensch / Identität / Inclusion / Inequality / Interviews / Jugendlicher / Junger Erwachsener / Kanada / Kommunikationsverhalten / Körperbehinderter / Lernbehinderter Mensch / LGBTQ people / Male / Management / Marginalized groups / Medicine and Health Sciences / Minderheit / Minority groups / Multiculturalism & pluralism / Networking / Oppression / Peer relationships / People with disabilities / Professional development / Professional training / Psychisch Kranker / Qualitative Research / Race / Racial differences / Racial Groups - psychology / Racism / Racism - psychology / Rassismus / Rehabilitation / Research ethics / Social interactions / Social Sciences / Social support / Soziale Ungleichheit / Stigma / Work experience / Workplace - psychology / Workplace multiculturalism / Workplaces / Young Adult / Young adults / Youth / Youth employment