  (abridged) We present a comprehensive study of stellar stratification in
young star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We apply our recently
developed effective radius method for the assessment of stellar stratification
on imaging data obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys of three young
LMC clusters to characterize the phenomenon and develop a comparative scheme
for its assessment in such clusters. The clusters of our sample, NGC 1983, NGC
2002 and NGC 2010, are selected on the basis of their youthfulness, and their
variety in appearance, structure, stellar content, and surrounding stellar
ambient. Our photometry is complete for magnitudes down to m_814 ~ 23 mag,
allowing the calculation of the structural parameters of the clusters, the
estimation of their ages and the determination of their stellar content. Our
study shows that each cluster in our sample demonstrates stellar stratification
in a quite different manner and at different degree from the others.
Specifically, NGC 1983 shows to be partially segregated only for the faintest
stars of the cluster, NGC 2002 shows evidence of strong stellar stratification
for both bright and faint stars, and NGC 2010 is found not to be segregated.
For the parametrization of the phenomenon of stellar stratification and its
quantitative comparison among these clusters, we propose the slope derived from
the change in the effective radius over the corresponding magnitude range as
indicative parameter of the degree of stratification in the clusters. A
positive value of this slope indicates mass segregation in the cluster, while a
negative or zero value signifies the lack of the phenomenon.
