(Sponsored by the Middle Level Education Research SIG and the National Middle School Association)The Young Adolescent and the Middle School focuses on issues related to the nature of young adolescence and the intersection of young adolescence with middle level schooling.This volume of the Handbook of Research in Middle Level Education marks the sixth installment in the series. The Handbook series, begun in 2001 by Vince Anfara, the series editor, has addressed varying thematic issues important to middle level education research. This volume, The Young Adolescent and the Middle School, focuses on the unique developmental needs of young adolescents and the role of the middle school in attending to these needs. The contributing authors in this volume address one of three developmental areas critical to young adolescents-physical development, intellectual/cognitive development, or social and personal development-and how these developmental characteristics affect the educational environment and the organization of middle schools.