ABSTRACT
Youth constitutes a fluid age category, generally referencing human development processes that precede adulthood. This chapter considers youth as the period that spans infancy through the age of 24, when basic educational and/or training commitments are generally completed. During this phase of development, individuals experience the process of becoming aware of and negotiating racial, ethnic, and gender identities. The salience of such identities occurs through various agents of socialization, starting at birth. Family constitutes the first influential agent of socialization, teaching children basic ideas of who they are and conveying expectations about their actions and beliefs. As children grow and begin to have contact with others beside family, through school activities and opportunities for peer interactions, they often encounter new ideas about what is expected by those outside their families, ideas that sometimes conflict with parental expectations. Community and media also play an important role in youth development, with their presence beginning at birth, but often growing as children spend increasingly more time outside the family context. The characteristics that an agent of socialization exhibits, and the effects they have on youth, likely vary depending on context.
