Taking a developmental contextualist perspective, and with a focus on social class, ethnicity and gender, this impressive collection explores how research on adolescent psychosocial development has unfolded from the 1970s to the present.The contributors examine such topics as: autonomy in adolescence and the detachment debate; sexuality from trends in gender sexual scripts to sexual offences such as date rape; intimacy from individual differences to interpersonal situations; achievement from the school or workplace to social settings; identity, including the role of culture; cognitive behaviours, including education for and constraints on critical thinking; and the interplay of biological and psychological processes.