ABSTRACT
Because of the societal challenges and informational demands they pose, two demographic trends are of special significance to researchers in the field of child and adolescent development: (a) increases in the proportion of racial and ethnic minorities in the American population, and (b) declines in the proportion of adolescents and youth in the total American population. In this chapter, I briefly review these trends and their origins and against this backdrop assess the current state of knowledge about development in minority children and youth, offer priorities for research on this topic, and discuss strategies that may facilitate the production of knowledge demanded by these demographic trends.
