Youngster from country almost heading for disaster (5)
I believe the answer is:
child
'youngster' is the definition.
(a youngster is a child or young person)
'country almost heading for disaster' is the wordplay.
'country' becomes 'Chile' (Chile is a country).
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'heading' means one lot of letters go next to another (some letters go in front of or head others).
'for disaster' becomes 'd' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'chile' with its final letter taken away is 'chil'.
'chil'+'d'='CHILD'
'from' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for child that I've seen before include "Young person" , "Infant" , "issue" , "Immature, irresponsible person" , "Minor" .)