This article explores how senses of mattering among young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) is formed, disrupted, and partially repaired through encounters with the Swedish welfare system and local support initiatives. Drawing on interviews with 39 participants across eight initiatives, the study uses an abductive, reflexive thematic analysis informed by the Mattering, Wellness, Fairness model to explore how structural conditions, institutional practices, and relational encounters shape experiences of mattering. Findings show that cumulative delays, fragmented responsibilities, and activation-oriented logics taught young people that their needs did not matter, undermining well-being and agency. Local support initiatives partially repaired mattering through relational continuity, shared decision-making, and reliability, yet these gains remained fragile within a broader system marked by scarcity and rigid thresholds. The study demonstrates that mattering is a dynamic, context-dependent process and argues that sustainable youth well-being requires both relationally intentional practice and structurally embedded fairness.
Gustavsson et al. (2026) studied this question.