Evidence shows that youth NEET ("Not in Education, Employment or Training") status is associated with substantial socio-economic costs and elevated risk of physical and mental ill health (Lindblad et al., 2024;Rahmani et al., 2024). In Europe alone, approximately 12.6% of young people are categorised as NEET, which carries an estimated economic burden exceeding €100 billion annually and has accumulated to over €1.6 trillion over the past decade (Eurostat, 2025;Mascherini, 2025). In Sweden, youth school absenteeism alone has been estimated to cost over approximately 14-24 billion Euro annually and is linked to a downward spiral into NEET status and social isolation, described as the "marginalisation staircase" (Nilsson Lundmark Lindblad et al., 2024;Tayfur et al., 2022). Evidence further suggests that neurodivergent (e.g., ADHD and Autism) children and adolescents are disproportionately represented among those entering disengagement trajectories, particularly when mental health difficulties coincide with repeated experiences of school failure and social rejection (Hilding et al., 2025;Lindblad et al., 2024). Young people who become NEET show higher levels of depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation and face increased risk of long-term unemployment and social exclusion (Gariépy et al., 2022;UNICEF, 2021). Importantly, economic evaluations indicate that early, preventive youth interventions typically generate returns of approximately three to seven times the initial public investment, reflecting the substantial costs avoided when disengagement is addressed before it becomes entrenched (Frontier Economics, 2022;Nilsson Lundmark Ryan not staying in class all the time; arriving late to school; and students attending school only because they are forced to by their parents"; Filippello et al., 2019, p1) and truancy (Nouwen Lee Trotter et al., 2021). Under conditions of sustained need frustration, compensatory engagement in gaming or esports may evolve into a "sinkhole" that displaces other important life activities and reduces exposure to environments that could support broader psychological development. In addition, unstructured and poorly supervised gaming and esports environments may expose some young people to harmful behaviours perpetrated by their peers either online or offline such as interpersonal violence (sexual, physical, psychological, neglect), and discrimination which can further undermine wellbeing and social participation (Brehm, 2013;Breuer et al., 2015;Fox Hilding, 2025;Nouwen Nilsson Lundmark Nilsson Lundmark Baker Hilding et al., 2025) and can engage with their child's gaming interests before contact with formal support systems occurs. Qualitative evidence from youth gaming cultures indicates that when parents engage with gaming in a curious and non-judgemental manner, this can strengthen trust, reduce conflict, and increase young people's willingness to share both positive and negative experiences related to their gaming activities (Askeland et al., 2020;Hilding et al., 2025). From a transition environments perspective, such parental engagement functions as a key donor-side resource that can legitimise gaming as a meaningful interest rather than a problem behaviour. Thus, having support at home and from parents could play a key role in helping a young person transition from gaming in relative isolation into a physical community such as a gaming or esports club or program. However, from a transition environment perspective, this is also partially dependent upon the receiving setting.In the receiving setting of the transition environment (i.e., structured gaming or esports clubs or programs embedded within existing educational, youth, or sport infrastructures; European Grassroots Esports, n.d.), adult facilitators (i.e., coaches, social workers, teachers and parents) can provide a sense of safety and valued belonging crucial for keeping young people engaged and motivated to remain engaged (Robinson Steinkuehler Sjödén Trotter et al., 2023). Importantly, longitudinal research from school-based esports programs indicates that participation in structured esports does not negatively impact self-regulation, physical activity, or perceived health when compared to non-participating peers (Trotter et al., 2022). Taken together, these findings suggest that as a receiving setting gaming-and esports-based clubs or programs offer a low-threshold means of engaging young people who are difficult to reach through traditional systems. Notably, participation in gaming and esports is strongly gendered, with boys and young men disproportionately represented, suggesting that such settings may be particularly well positioned to engage a group that is both overrepresented in esports and at elevated risk of disengagement from education and organised activity (Rogstad, 2021;Seidler, 2024). However, efforts should be made to ensure to identify how these environments can be designed to reduce identify-based barriers and inclusivity among girls and underrepresented groups.From an ecological transition perspective, the effectiveness of gaming-and esports-based transition environments depends not on the donor or receiving setting in isolation, but on the quality of their interaction (Henriksen et al., 2024). In this view, transitions emerge through coordination, communication, and continuity between donor and receiving settings rather than through movement between discrete locations or programmes (Henriksen et al., 2024). In the context of youth gaming, parents and caregivers constitute a central donor setting, shaping young people's engagement through their attitudes, perceived control, and willingness to support or legitimise gaming as a meaningful activity. Evidence indicates that parental uncertainty and limited knowledge about esports can constrain support, even when parents are motivated to act in their child's best interests (Svensson et al., 2024). Receiving settings therefore play a critical role not only in supporting young people directly, but also in scaffolding the donor setting by providing parents with information, structure, and reassurance regarding norms, expectations, and developmental goals for both young people and their parents. Crucially, a unique potential of gaming and esports transition environments is that the first step in a transition can be digital, for example playing with other members of the club or program online, before meeting them in person. Digital engagement can provide a lower-threshold entry point, particularly for young people who experience social anxiety, are neurodivergent, or have had prior negative experiences in organised sport or school contexts, allowing families to familiarise themselves with the other club or program members, routines and values before attending in-person sessions (Hilding et al., 2025). By reducing uncertainty and supporting predictability, such digitally mediated pathways can strengthen continuity across settings and support sustained engagement. However, it is important that when designing interventions based on this approach, adaptions to local cultural and contextual factors will be important. A clearer understanding of gaming and esports transition environments, is therefore central to designing programmes capable of supporting young people (particularly those at greater risk of disengagement or who are neurodivergent) through key life transitions, while supporting their participation in society (Henriksen et al., 2024;Hilding et al., 2025;Svensson et al., 2024).To date, gaming and esports have not been empirically examined as transition environments for young people disengaging from education or broader societal participation. This absence is not surprising. The transition environment concept itself is new, and existing applications have primarily focused on career transitions within high-performance sport rather than on those in the broader society (Henriksen et al., 2024). The present paper therefore advances a conceptual proposition rather than a validated model of practice. We suggest that the concept of transition environments holds promise for understanding how structured gaming and esports might function as bridging systems for disengaged youth, but systematic empirical work is needed to understand these environments in detail. Future research should examine how donor and receiving settings interact in practice, which transition preconditions (e.g., designated human and financial resources), established links between donor and receiving settings, structured transition support processes, whole-person philosophies, and overlaps in cultural practices are associated with sustained engagement and transition effectiveness. Only through such work can best-practice principles for gaming-based transition environments be identified and responsibly scaled.
Trotter et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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