Reported is a longitudinal study of socially maladjusted boys in Kansas City, Missouri. Inner city seventh grade boys, identified as socially and educationally maladjusted, were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group participated in a work-study program beginning in the eighth grade, receiving special classroom work geared to their abilities and supervised work experience. By observations, tests, and interviews, complete records were kept on the school, work, family, social, and community adjustments of both groups through age 18 or 19 years, to provide documentation of all factors contributing to their inclination to failure. It was expected that the boys in the experimental work-study program would show better social adjustment and early adult competence. However, findings indicate that only about one fourth of them profited from the program. The study thus failed to show that supervised work experience, beginning with 13 and 14-year-old predelinquent boys, could be useful in reducing delinquency among boys so disposed. Five different types of late adolescent adjustments, and associated life circumstances and conditions, were identified. While reporting experimental findings, the book is mainly concerned with describing the life context in which successful or unsuccessful adaptations are made in later adolescence. (KW)