the challenges they face. For example, a young individual struggling with school content and lacking the support to improve their learning capabilities may feel like they lack the capacity to continue in school. <mark>Repetition – even multiple repetitions – are very common among informants and an important source of shame and demotivation.</mark><sup>39</sup> _Q13: P: I ́ve studied until the fourth grade and I repeated grades twice and that’s why I got bored of school. I thought that if I was repeating grades, then I am not learning. From first grade until the fourth grade I didn't repeat. When I got to the fourth grade I started repeating. I studied three years in fourth grade and then I got bored ... Then I gave it a break... When I repeated the third time, I lost the will to study at all._ _<mark>Woman, 24 years, from urban Caranguejo-Tabaiares.</mark>_

**<mark>The final decision to drop out is usually t</mark> aken in critical moments, such as the transition into high school or family shocks.** When families move to other locations, youth may fail to enroll at the school at the new location. The sickness of family members may also force them to prioritize paid work or confine them in the role of caregivers. <mark>Parental separation or the introduction of step-parents can lead to conflicts over decision-making and division of work within their households, triggering a desire to become independent.</mark>

**Critical moments may trigger youth’s attempts to transition** **<mark>into adulthood, which are largely shaped by traditional gender roles reinforced early on at the family and community levels.</mark>** <mark>For young men, the pressure to become financially independent leads them to assert their masculinity through their ability to navigate independently in the professional world and display symbols of financial success. As they see their peers start engaging in informal work while still in school, they may start doing the same. In some cases, the family exercises pressure for them to work, which creates conditions in which they feel they are unable to continue with both education and work.</mark>

_<mark>Q14: If I left my job to go to school, my mother would put me...I don ́t know what she could do...she could put me out of the house. Because she already did this so many times. So, I chose to stay in my job and leave school. Not to create any conflict at home.</mark>_ _<mark>Man, 23 years, from urban Brasilit</mark>_

**<mark>For young women, the transition is often expressed in their desire to form their own families, which may lead them to drop out after teenage unions and pregnancies.</mark>**<sup>40</sup> <mark>Many young women interviewed had mothers and many peers who married or got pregnant at a very young age. A</mark> lthough focusing one’s priority and efforts on family building and childrearing can be a source of fulfillment and accomplishment for women, it is important to note that this is a choice rather than an imposed path. For some women, this option must be <mark>understood in a context of a limited set of</mark>

39 See for instance Branson et al (2014) who show that overage students in South Africa are more likely to drop out because they started late or because they repeated.

> 40 The idea that motherhood is the predominant way poor women in Brazil imagine their transition to adulthood is also emphasized in Heilborn and Cabral (2011). The authors argue that in a context of lack of female empowerment and lack of other opportunities, young women do not see other transitions to adulthood other than by becoming a mother. On the other hand, education levels are highly correlated with a woman’s degree of sexual autonomy and with a delay in child bearing and marriage (World Bank 2012).

20