School Belonging Predicts whether an Emerging Adult will be Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET) after School

Low school belonging and Not (being) in Employment, Education, or Training (NEET) are both signs of social exclusion. Yet little research has considered whether school belonging is a risk factor for NEET. Using two longitudinal cohorts from Australia (*N* = 17,692; 51% Boys), we explore this relationship. Controlling for a range of individual and school level covariates, we find that school belonging at age 15 is a consistent and practically significant predictor of NEET status at ages 16-20. We found that this relationship is not the product of school belonging lowering the chances of students graduating high-school. Rather, school belonging had a unique impact beyond graduation. Given the costs of NEET, school belonging is of significant policy concern.