The book is a combined effort of scholars who participated in a conference entitled "Post-Soviet Youth: A Comparative Study." The book focuses on the post-perestroika period, a time of great instability and change on the national and individual level. It analyzes the effect of this dynamic on youth, who in the transitional phase of adolescence are particularly susceptible to social disruption. The scope includes not only youth who remained in the former Soviet Union but also those who emigrated to the West- Israel, Germany, the U.S. and Greece. It was considered important to place this study in a cross-cultural framework in order to differentiate between local influences and the common denominators from the Soviet background. From Pacesetters to Dropouts offers an important contribution to the study of the effect of a particular form of socialization on youth in a period of stress and change. It is relevant not only to understanding the changes undergone by an important segment of society in the former Soviet Union but also to studying the experience of other immigrant groupings in an era characterized by widespread migration.

Contributions by: C Wallace, M Chernysh, D Konstantinovski, A Knafo, S Schwartz, T Zaslavski, M Moore, S Shamai, Z Ilatov, A Psalti, K Deliyanni, A Halberstadt-Komar, Marina Yelagina, Vladimir Magun, N Panina, E Golovakha, V Sobkin, B Dietz, S Sidorenko-Stephenson