I. Threshold Meta-Concepts and the Contours of Youth Studies -- The Youth Question -- Theoretical Approaches to the Youth Question -- Seminal Debates in Youth Studies -- II. The Socio-Economic Influences Structuring the Youth Period -- Education and the Youth Period -- Work and Changing Employment Opportunities -- Family Life and Parental Influence -- The Mediated World and Technological Influences -- III. The Changing Experiences of the Youth Period -- Youth Culture: in whose interests? -- Youth Identity Formation: agentic potentials or inevitable confusion? -- Youth Social Identities: structurally determined or agentically mediated? -- Youth politics: engaged/alternative or disengaged/resistant -- IV. Conclusions: the Future of Youth Studies: Youth Studies' Coming of Age.