Youth in the USA
From a policy angle, the United States does not have a set, defined age as to what constitutes “youth".
A young person growing up in one neighbor - hood, state, or region of the United States will therefore have more or fewer opportunities as a result. The experience of a youth who is Black in the U.S. South, for instance will vary tremendously from a White youth on the U.S. West Coast. Research has shown that these realities can be broken down along many va - riables, from healthcare and life expectancy to career success and socio-economic outcomes. While many young people tend to live with their immediate family, some may also live in less traditional living situations, including with grandparents or other family members. In ur - ban areas, there tends to be more racial and ethnic diversity in schools and communities that allows young people to engage with peo - ple from different backgrounds while in rural areas, there tends to be less diversity. While it was ruled that racial segregation among schools and other public spaces is illegal in 1954, with the Brown vs. Board of Education
Supreme Court Decision, many schools in the United States continue to be deeply segrega - ted by race. This is because where a student goes to public schools is dependent upon their zip code and the property taxes that are paid within that zip code, which is correlated to how much money a family earns and their race. Defining Youth From a policy angle, the United States does not have a set, defined age as to what constitutes “youth,” but an official definition generally re - volves around the notion of a “youth” consti - tuting anyone under the age of twenty-five, from a theoretical standpoint at least. Within the United States, an individual is officially con - sidered to be an adult at the age of eighteen. Further, ages fourteen and under are conside - red early adolescents, while adolescents them - selves are those between the ages of fourteen to eighteen, and early adulthood is considered ages eighteen to twenty-four. This distinction
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