The ideal of the proper family mealtime, originally devised by the Victorian middle class, gained cultural hegemony in modern America, but with the partial exception of the 1950s, only a minority of American families could ever live by it.

Two anthropologists treat mealtimes as cultural sites for socializing children into commensality, communicative expectations, and the symbolic, moral, and sentimental meanings of food and eating. Using ethnographic evidence, they indicate how mealtime comportment is embedded in practices and ideologies relevant to children's competent membership…

Participation in dinner table conversations offers children opportunities to acquire vocabulary, practice producing and understanding stories and explanations, acquire general knowledge, and learn how to talk in culturally appropriate ways. (Contains 1 table.)

This chapter focuses on how the routine elements of family mealtimes such as assigned tasks and the more emotional ritual aspects such as recognition of feelings are related to children's well-being and the creation of a family identity. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

Adolescents are at risk for poor dietary intake and unhealthy weight control behaviors. Family meals appear to play an important role in helping adolescents make healthier food choices and avoid engaging in unhealthy weight control and binge eating behaviors. (Contains 2 figures.)

This chapter discusses biological contributions to adolescent female sexual development and, based on a developmental systems framework, suggests future research directions.

The psychosocial impact of puberty on changes in girls' feelings about their bodies and their sexuality is discussed. We present a model of girls' sexuality development that incorporates puberty, self, and peer systems. (Contains 2 figures.)

This chapter provides an expanded view of parent- adolescent sexual communication and socialization in an effort to move beyond risk perspectives toward a consideration of other important aspects of sexual socialization.

This chapter discusses several ways in which the media may serve as a positive force in young women's sexual health and development through the information and models they provide and the opportunities they offer for validation and self-expression. (Contains 1 table.)

This chapter challenges forthcoming research on adolescent female sexuality to take more seriously the role of dominant cultural ideologies regarding heterosexuality and to consider its theoretical and methodological implications.

This chapter presents the development of European youth research as a distinctive field of study. It draws attention to the sociopolitical context in which the field has emerged, outlines the key dimensions of the field's agenda, reports on significant facets of theory and research development to date, and briefly considers the field's…

The authors deal with changes in the relationship between education and learners due to modernization processes. The motivation of the learner has become a prime force to ensure the acquisition of knowledge. That implies a broadening of educational strategies, including nonformal education to remotivate frustrated learners.

The author connects the changing meanings of youth in contemporary western societies with the transformations in the representation of the future. The new youthful biographical constructions can be considered a central outcome of these parallel changes: they avoid long-term commitments and structure themselves around the idea of changeability.…

This chapter presents an overview of studies investigating the role of the family while children cope with problems in their transitions to the labor market. Attention is paid to different support systems in a variety of European countries, depending on different state welfare models.

In this chapter, the author argues for the essential role of "doing gender" in the transition of young people from education to the labor market. Two relevant concepts are introduced: biographicity and gender competence. They are illustrated with a female and a male case.