How do boys see themselves? Their peers? The adult world? What are their aspirations, their fears? How do they feel about their own masculinity? About style, 'race', homophobia? About football?

This book examines aspects of 'young masculinities' that have become central to contemporary social thought, paying attention to psychological issues as well as to social policy concerns. Centring on a study involving in-depth exploration, through individual and group intererviews, the authors bring to light the way boys in the early years of secondary schooling conceptualise and articulate their experiences of themselves, their peers and the adult world. The book includes discussion of boys' aspirations and anxieties, their feelings of pride and loss. As such, it offers an unusually detailed set of insights into the experiential world inhabited by these boys - how they see themselves, how girls see them, what they wish for and fear, where they feel their 'masculinity' to be advantageous and where it inhibits other potential experiences. In describing this material, the authors explore questions such as the place of violence in young people's lives, the functions of 'hardness', of homophobia and football, boys' underachievement in school, and the pervasive racialisation of masculine identity construction.

Young Masculinities will be invaluable to researchers in psychology, sociology, gender and youth studies, as well as to those devising social policy on boys and young men.

'At a moment when educationalists, social researchers and those involved in social policy are concerned by the apparent 'crisis' amongst boy and young men...this book is timely...would I buy this book? Both as an academic with an interest in children's well-being and fathering as well as someone who has spent more than thirty years working with 'troubled' and 'troubling' young men, I would spend my money. The many quotes from the boys and the insightful interpretations rang true. This book is a useful contribution to the literature.' - Ann Buchanan, Jounal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry

'Provides insights into the subtle matrix of rules and mechanisms boys must negotiate in order to be seen as acceptable...what is also vividly exposed is the dissatisfaction many boys feel with the limits this imposes.' - New Statesman

'A sophisticated and rigorously theorized account of boys' masculine identity construction...It also offers a rare and insightful account of the interview process as a 'social space'...an invaluable resource to any academic/professional, practitioner or policy maker researching, or working with, boys and young men and indeed anyone interested in understanding the construction of contemporary inner-city masculinities, from the perspective and experiences of boys themselves.' - British Journal of Social Work (2004)

'I fully expect Young Masculinities to become a landmark book. It provides a timely intervention into the ongoing debate about 'the problem with boys...' - Rachel Thomson, South Bank University, Social Policy

STEPHEN FROSH is Professor of Psychology at Birkbeck College, University of London, and previously Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Vice Dean in the Child and Family Department at the Tavistock Clinic, London. He is the author of numerous academic papers and several books, including For and Against Psychoanalysis, Sexual Difference: Masculinity and Psychoanalysis, Identity Crisis: Modernity, Psychoanalysis and the Self and The Politics of Psychoanalysis. He is joint author, with Danya Glaser, of Child Sexual Abuse and co-editor with Anthony Elliott of Psychoanalysis in Context.

ANN PHOENIX is Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Open University. Her books include Standpoints and Differences (with Karen Henwood and Chris Griffin), Crossfires: Nationalism, Racism and Gender in Europe (with Helma Lutz and Nira Yuval-Davies), and Black, White or Mixed Race? (with Barbara Tizard).

ROB PATTMAN is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Botswana. He has taught sociology in sixth form colleges and institutions of higher education in Britain and southern Africa, and published articles on whiteness, gender identities, sex and AIDS education and social theory.