Narrations of mental health of young women Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) from Mexico and Spain

This article shows the results of a qualitative study for analyze mental health in young women as NEET through the meanings attributed to the experience of life. Fifteen early adult women participated in the study; of the 32 who participated in an extensive study only women were elected, they were selected using an intensive intentional sampling strategy. We carefully selected only a few cases, seeking to characterize the object of study and to obtain profound information based on reality; they were females who are from Oviedo, Spain and Aguascalientes, Mexico. They received a detailed explanation of the study and its objectives, voluntarily accepted to participate and allowed the recording of the interviews. The results about the mental health, found in young different emotional expressions related to the feelings of not being working or studying, such as sadness, loneliness, anxiety, stress, fear, frustration, discomfort and others. These women experienced loneliness when felt they did not have friends, not go to school or not work. It is noteworthy that these manifestations of these women refer anxiety about not finding work and in other cases not being at school because it struck social and interpersonal functioning. These life stories allowed understanding, from the feminine subjective perspective, the importance they have experienced as NEET, which, according to the meanings they mentioned, are specific forms of distress and depression with repercussions in their mental health, the importance of this population attends with new public policies on mental health, education and work.