本文先以發展 (development) 之觀點引述相關青少年期之生理、心理丶社會丶認知丶及道德發展等文獻，以便讀者對此一時期之發展特質有所瞭解。再進一步重新建構相關之人口統計資料以展現我國青少年就學丶就業丶婚姻、犯罪、死亡丶殘障及家庭變故等潛在問題。除了前述相關青少年背景資料外，本文第二部份主要由政策觀點切入，先討論社會福利政策須處理的一些議題一如社會福利之界定丶政府角色、政府與家庭之分工等；再以我國少年福利法爲例，除探討其立法過程外，並借用Gilbert及Specht之架構 (framework)來分析其立法內涵 (product)。針對四個面向(dimension)一受益對象丶福利提供之形態丶行政組織安排及財務設計一之剖析有助於瞭解我國少年福利政策發展現況，並可提供識者討論之基礎，期使我國未來之少年福利政策更具前瞻性。

Beginning with a brief review on the related physical, psychological, social, cognitive, and moral development of adolescents, the writer tried to grant the readers with a grasp of some characteristics of this popula­tion. By further reconstructing census data on education, employment, marriage, juvenile delinguency, death and handicap, and etc. for adoles­cents, the potential problems confronting this population became more evident. Given the background information, the second part of this paper deals with policy perspective. After discussing issues deserving more attention from the ploicy makers, the Youth Welfare Act of R.O.C. was used as a case to look into its development process and product content. The latter discussion was based on a framework suggested by Gilbert and Specht to analyze policy product from four dimensions: allocation, provision, delivery, and financing. This paper intends to set a base for further discussion of the concerned, so that a more proactive youth wel­fare policy might be developed in the future.