Volume 8 of Sociological Studies of Children and Youth includes chapters that focus on issues of race, gender and public policy as they relate to children and youth. This volume includes empirical and theoretical works from a variety of perspectives. The chapters are divided into the following sections: (1) Children, Race, and Social Institutions; (2) Youth and Gender; (3) Youth, Theory, and Methods; (4) Urban Youth and Identity; and (5) Policy, Politics and Theory. Specific chapters address the following important topics; the impact of teachers' expectations on parents and children; how children from different racial backgrounds interact with each other and adults in a public service agency; children's racial self-classification; female and male athletes in high school; romantic relationships among adolescents; new skills to learn in peer groups; white youth's racial apathy; urban youth and academic identity; violence among youth growing up in a large city; and theory and public policy as they relate to children.