Street youth: adaptation and survival in the AIDS decade.

This article discusses adaptational and survival strategies of homeless youth and describes how pilot research, begun in 1982 on these strategies in the western United States, led to additional research and activity focused upon the related international street youth problem. The results of this research suggest that a critical relationship exists between survival strategies and the AIDS pandemic. The impact of this pandemic on street youth can be mitigated only by immediate and comprehensive preventive actions at both national and international levels.