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The aim of the article is to characterize important features of the phenomenon of social maladjustment among young people. In its methodological aspect, the article is in the form of a review and is based on the analysis of sources in which the issue of social maladjustment of youth is adressed multidimensionally, over a long period of time. In general, three interrelated issues were addressed. Firstly, there are issues related to the way of understanding and defining the phenomenon of social maladjustment among young people, which were presented based on approaches traditionally present in the subject's literature. Secondly, the causes of the occurrence of this phenomenon and the factors determining its dynamics were characterized. Thirdly, an attempt was made to present possible solutions to the problem of social maladjustment based on research findings presented in the subject's literature, particularly in the field of resocialization pedagogy, sociology, and criminology. These findings were confronted with the practical experience of the article's authors and their published research results. This allowed for emphasizing both the causal potential for preventing social maladjustment of youth as well as to discuss the main barriers in this regard. All this allows to look at the problem from a new perspective, which is expressed in the question of to what extent does social maladjustment fit into the content of Merton's thesis, according to which human behavior that deviates from the recognized social and legal norm is a normal reaction to abnormal, crisis circumstances or situations?
Frąckowiak et al. (Fri,) studied this question.