The aim of this study is to examine the daily life of out-of-school adolescents, as a social minority group, after dropping out of school and how they change over time. The school dropout rate of Korean adolescents is on the rise as school classes are normalized after COVID-19. When adolescents whose whereabouts are not identified outside of the regular education system are neglected, it can lead to great social loss, and out-of-school adolescents experience emotional and social difficulties after dropping out of school and are easily exposed to danger. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to what kind of life out-of-school adolescents live outside of the regular education system and what kind of social support they need to grow into independent adults.
The research questions of this study are as follows:
First, how many latent groups are classified according to the use of out-of-school adolescents living time, and what characteristics do each group have?
Second, what factors affect the membership of each latent group?
Third, what is the longitudinal transition pattern of the latent class according to the use of living time use by out-of-school adolescents and what are the factors that affect it?
Fourth, how do qualitative studies explain the characteristics and longitudinal changes by type?
To this aim, using the data from the panel survey of adolescents who dropped out of school, a Latent Profile Analysis(LPA) and a Latent Transition Analysis(LTA) were performed according to the use of living time to classify subgroups of out-of-school adolescents. In addition, 10 out-of-school adolescents who can represent the latent classes use were sampled and in-depth interviews were conducted. This study carried out a mixed research method of sequential explanatory design including both quantitative and qualitative methods, and tried to deeply explore the lives of out-of-school adolescents in the process of generalizing individual perceptions and phenomena based on quantitative research results.
The results of this study are summarized as follows:
First, out-of-school adolescents were classified as a differences group according to their time use, it was confirmed that the type of time use of out-of-school adolescents was not single. As a result of LPA, 3 groups in the first year(high working group, medium working group, and academic leisure group), and 5 groups in the second year(high working group, medium working group, academic individual group, academic institution group, and helpless friendship group), and 4 groups in the third year(working group, academic individual group, academic institution group, and helpless friendship group) were drawn.
Second, looking at the pattern of transition by group over time, the fixed probability of transition to the same type was low, confirming the fact that out-of-school adolescents change their lifestyle over time.
Third, there were self-esteem, depression, impulsiveness, parents'' economic support, parents'' emotional support, and peer relationships as factors influencing group membership and transition. In particular, individual psychological and emotional factors, such as self-esteem, depression, and impulsiveness, are factors that affect not only group membership at that time but also transition in the following year, confirming the importance of psychological adaptation of out-of-school adolescents.
Fourth, it was found that the participants in the qualitative study recovered their identity and self-esteem through out-of-school activities and awareness-raising activities, and that these activities had a positive effect on their social adaptation.
Based on these findings, the conclusions of this study is as follows.
First, out-of-school adolescents have various individual differences in development and adaptation compared to general adolescents, and intervention methods according to the characteristics of each type are needed. It is necessary to strengthen educational opportunities and economic support for the high working group who lack educational opportunities, provide opportunities for various hobbies to helpless friendship groups, and provide counseling and consulting for academic individual groups who wish to go to college.
Second, there is a possibility that the helpless friendship group is a mixture of adaptive and maladaptive youth. There are maladaptive cases that cut off social relationships and spend time in seclusion, but there are also adaptive cases that spend meaningful time maintaining social relationships with peers and exploring their career path. Therefore, it seems necessary to further explore the adaptation of the helpless friendship group.
Third, in order for out-of-school adolescents to grow into adaptive members of society, interventions that strengthen their positive psychology and alleviate their negative psychology are expected to be important.
Fourth, parents'' economic support is a factor influencing membership in the working group and the academic group. However, there are cases where even if they do not receive financial support and daily care from their parents, they have developed the ability to stand on their own through the community safety net. It can be seen that the input of social capital is necessary for social adaptation of out-of-school adolescents from vulnerable families.

Keyword: out-of-school adolescents, drop out of school, living time use, latent profile analysis, latent transition analysis, social adaptation, psychological and emotional factors