In a time of strengthening neo-endogenous development policies that place demands on every member of society for active participation in development processes, this doctoral thesis investigates the position and issues of young people in the EU and the Republic of Croatia, as well as the attitudes and opinions of young people from eastern Croatia about their readiness for the world of work and active life in local communities in accordance with their personal human and social capital within the political and institutional framework. Analyticaldescriptive methods and empirical research methods were used in the paper with the aim of confirming the research hypotheses: 1) Young people in eastern Croatia have a low level of human capital expressed in knowledge, skills and competences, 2) Low level of trust and involvement of young people in the life of local communities in rural areas of eastern Croatia is associated with the low involvement of young people in rural development management activities, 3) The low level of economic capital of young families in Eastern Croatia expressed by family income, ownership and equipment of households is associated with the availability of development resources important for involvement in rural development, 4) There are significant differences in the potentials of young people for rural development between groups of young people who engage in and who do not engage in agriculture, and are visible on the levels of their personal, social and economic capital. The main empirical research was conducted in 2019 on a sample of N=331 young people from 4 counties in eastern Croatia: Vukovar-Srijemska, Brod-Posavska, Osijek-Baranjska and Požega-Slavonska. The results indicated that for young people's interest in local issues and engagement in solving local problems, certain human characteristics understood as knowledge, skills, and competences are important, then socioeconomic characteristics understood as economic situation, family income, material possessions and equipment of the household, and social characteristics understood as trust, participation in the life of the community and positive attitudes towards one's community. It has been shown that there is a potential of young people from eastern Croatia, considering all the verified aspects of educational, economic and social resources, but also obstacles for their full realization in assuming a more significant role in rural development. Obstacles were detected as structural in the form of lower availability, geographical and economic, for the activation and furtherdevelopment of the basic human capital that young people already have. There is a disparity between existing and necessary knowledge, skills and competences for the development of rural areas. The general negative image of young people about the possibilities of achieving a good life in rural areas prevails, which is associated with unemployment problems, as well as wider political restrictions, which is reflected in the low level of trust in actors of local development and the low involvement of young people in local development processes in rural areas. The thesis contains 7 parts. In the introductory part, a description of the problem and need for research was made, as well as an overview of previous research, an overview of goals and hypotheses, a description of the research and an overview of the scientific methods used. The content of the thesis from the second to the fifth chapter refers to the theoretical foundations and the description and results of the research. The sixth part of the paper is a discussion part with reference to the confirmation of hypotheses. The seventh part of the paper is the conclusion.