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4. Gaps in the evidence and opportunities for future research
Further work could be done to use existing statistical data to provide more detailed profiling of gender differences in patterns of out-migration and returning by young people across the urban-rural classification. This might include pulling together work currently done using existing statistical sources at local authority or enterprise agency level. More use could also be made of existing rolling surveys to gather relevant data. The Scottish School Leavers Survey, a government commissioned source of data, could be used to provide a more detailed insight into the views and migration intentions of young people but currently does not attempt any urban rural comparison or collect data on migration, although it does ask about leaving home. Previous generations of this survey allowed Jones (1992) to demonstrate that young people living in rural areas were over twice as likely to have left home at an early age than those in urban areas. The PhD by MacKinnon (2005) is suggestive of differences in orientations of teenage boys and girls to migration between types of rural area but the requirement of place anonymity and the small scale of the study makes the differences difficult to interpret. Data from rolling surveys of young people that are already commissioned would be a great deal more robust. In some years time, questions could be introduced to parents in the 'Growing Up in Scotland' survey about their assumptions concerning the future migration of their children.
It may also be helpful to pull together information and research on existing services for young people or particularly popular with young people to facilitate consideration of what more can be done to support such services in rural areas and to monitor their impact. For example, some studies have commented on the absence of certain types of leisure facilities and several studies have recommended that young people in rural areas have a particular need for advice and support because of the radical nature of changes in the lives for all young people. Those who take up higher education in rural areas inevitably have multiple transitions, not having the option of staying at home taken up by some urban young people. Young people who stay in rural areas have to cope with a more radical loss of peers and more limited options than urban young people. If new advice or support services are established, or if current services are enhanced, then this is an opportunity for building in impact monitoring or action research or evaluation research.
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