This 4-part study reaffirms the concepts of a previous study entitled "Situation and Prospects of Youth in Latin America" and approved in 1983, and on the basis of new knowledge explores more deeply national situations and their diversity. It offers new conceptual and theoretical contributions on the condition of youth in Latin America and its significance. It also analyzes a number of new topics relating to the situation of youth in the region. These include: changes in the socioeconomic structure; social institutions as a possible channel of economic integration for youth; consumerism in Latin America and its impact on young people; implications of the world of work; the importance of symbolic dimensions in the condition of youth; and the identity of youth vis-a-vis social stratification in the region. Part 1, "Social Change and Its Effect on Youth," looks at the youth of the region and their relationship with the processes of transformation of the social structure, change, and the international economic crisis. Part 2, "Young People and Politics," reviews social determinants of political participation, the concept of political poverty, young people's capacity for political change in situations where modernization is a recent phenomenon, political participation and social strata, attitudes towards democracy and political institutions, the situation in those countries where modernization came early, spheres of participation, the family and political socialization, and social inclusion and exclusion processes: their effect on political attitudes. Part 3, "The Diversity of Situations in the Region," describes the typification of social development situations and the status of youth in relation to their specific situations. Part 4 contains prospects and conclusions. Also included in an appendix summarizing the 1983 study of which the present document is a follow-up. (TRS)