This project investigates how young people in Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine are being affected by the economic, political and social changes in their countries since independence. It explores how young people themselves are experiencing these changes, and how they are responding to their new problems and opportunities. The research will lead to policy recommendations and thereby contribute to social reconstruction.

Eventually the research will involve surveys of between 1500 and 2000 young people in each of the above countries. The research methods will be based on those developed in previous studies of young people in Britain, Germany and Poland, and some of the results will be directly comparable.

In this first phase of the project each local team in the NIS countries is preparing an initial report on its country's economic, political and social structures, the main changes since independence, what is already known about the implications for young people, and the variations between regions, national groups, urban and rural dwellers, males and females, and according to family and educational backgrounds. Following discussion of these reports by the wider research network each local team will develop a research strategy which will specify the main issues to be addressed, recommend the regions within which the fieldwork should be concentrated, and the methods of sample selection.

Draft questionnaires and interview schedules will also be produced. These plans will then be discussed by the entire research network.