Teenagers and risk – why your supervision and involvement is necessary

Author

Paul Banas

Submitted: 01.03.08

A recent New York Times article, Teenage Risks, and How to Avoid Them, reviews how adults function differently than teenagers. Teens tend to weight benefits higher than risks, making risky behavior for short-term reward more attractive. As people grow older, they become more intuitive and can more clearly see the best course of action. The article points out that kids need help recognizing cues for danger so they can react.

But more importantly, the article points out the key role of parents. Younger teens, especially, can’t be counted on to understand risk. That’s why involved parenting is so important:

“Younger adolescents don’t learn from consequences as well as older adolescents do. So rather than relying on them to make reasoned choices or to learn from the school of hard knocks, a better approach is to supervise them.”

In other words, young teenagers need to be protected from themselves by removing opportunities for risk-taking — for example, by filling their time with positive activities and protecting them from risky situations that are likely to be tempting or that require “behavioral inhibition.”

A young teenage girl should not be left alone in the house with her boyfriend, and responsible adults should be omnipresent and alcohol absent when teenagers have parties.

Popularity: 1%