Youth research is a key area. Several researchers at the Danish School of Education, Aarhus University work with young people and their lives, their engagement structures and learning processes, and institutional and educational forms of practice in relation to youths.

The research is oriented towards young people in a broad sense, meaning all phases of the lives of young people ranging from the early teens to the 'young adult'. The boundaries between the different phases and transitions are still more fluid and culturally determined, which complicates a definite boundary. However, this difficulty is a key focus for exploration of young people transition and processes of becoming in modern society.

In terms of its research theme the youth research focuses empirically and theoretically on the problems connected with young people´s participation, integration, exclusion and transition in and across societal arenas. These youth problems include young people´s transition processes and qualification in the educational system; the significance of societal conditions for young people´s lives, and young people´s lifestyle, health and risk behaviour, with particular focus on new forms of maladjustment among youths and how they can be understood.