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Risk taking behaviors in adolescence In this report I will address the issue of the importance of understanding the risk taking behavior of young people in their adolescence period of life. First of all let us identify the notion of adolescence and answer why is it important in the forming of persons individuality. Adolescence is considered to be a transitional period of a person, between childhood and adult hood. It is a time when young people continue to develop the social and intellectual skills that tend to prepare them for mature life and the responsibilities that go along.
During this period, adolescents reach physical and sexual maturity, develop more improved reasoning ability, and look on their future in a critical way of preparing the expectations and setting their lifetime goals that will affect their career and life as a whole. This time period is considered to be the core period in the life of individual. This is because during this time an individual makes decisions that will have a great impact on their life further on. It is better for any of us to make a correct decision during this time period. Each individual has his particular choice, but at the same time the conditions that the individual is surrounded influence that choice greatly. For example a youngster from a more wealthy family have much more opportunities to choose from in their life that the ones from less successful families.
It is important to understand the views of adolescent teenagers if you plan to interact with them frequently, especially if you have a tutorial engagement in their lives. Because the tutor of any person influences that persons life greatly, and the student is creating his standpoints looking at the tutor, and sometimes taking the tutor as a role model. According to the article written by current researchers of the issue of adolescents behaviors, and we are going to use the concepts presented in it, there are many factors that influence the young people in this time period. Social and environmental factors define the social contexts of adolescents lives and they also impact the aspirations, expectations, and goals that adolescents develop for their futures. Moreover, the opportunities, pressures, and resources adolescents confront on a daily basis are influenced by key social, structural, and economic variables related to ethnicity, minority status, gender, and socioeconomic status, according to the article. These two factors are the most influential ones because the environment that the individual is developing in may vary greatly.
The ones that live in a more criminalized areas often get used to weapons from their childhood. Pretty often you may meet drug and alcohol abusers amongst them. These people start their sexual activities in a rather early age, girls get pregnant because youngsters use condoms pretty rarely. Sexually transmitted deceases are common for the residents of such areas as well. All of these factors have to do with risk taking behavior of adolescents as a consequence. Those youngsters have nothing to loose attitude towards risk taking.
Adolescents who have low expectations for their future may feel that they have nothing to lose and engage in more risk behavior than adolescents with high expectations. For instance, teens with expectations of early mortality might be more likely to engage in delinquent or violent behaviors or become sexually active at a young age. We also expect the school context of adolescents expectations to influence individual behavior such that a climate of low future expectations promotes greater involvement in risk behavior by youth in that context than a school climate with high expectations. For example, adolescents who attend a school in which overall student expectations for a college education are low might be more likely to engage in illegal behavior regarding drugs or weapons than adolescents in a school with high aggregate educational expectations because the normative school climate would attach less risk to such behavior, with less to lose in terms of future education. Another major problem that concerns the issue is the fact that adolescents take health for granted. They put their energy into going straight forward in achieving their goals, and often pretend to be actually older than they are, which causes them to take on deeds that are inappropriate for their age.
What is easy for 19 year old person might not be easy for the age of 13. Another astonishing issue in the risk taking by the youngsters is violence. It is growing more rapidly than in any other subgroup. Between 1985 and 1994, the number of persons arrested for murder and not negligent manslaughter increased by 150 % for persons under 18 years of age in comparison to only 11. 2 % for persons 18 years of age and older (Federal Bureau of Investigation 1995). The homicide rate for 14 - 17 year olds has risen from 7. 0 to 19. 1 per 100, 000 in just a decade and is attributable to the availability of handguns beginning in 1985, according to the statistics. This data gives us a widespread variety of problems to solve.
Another vital issue that I want to stress is the issue of the education of the focused group of people. This has a great impact on overall moral and physical health standing of the youngsters. Schools are probably the most influential educational facility that develop the goal stating strategies for young people. They also influence the development of adolescent health behaviors. Because adolescents spend so much of their time in school, most of their social contacts are concentrated in the school environment where they develop social networks through interpersonal interaction with same-age peers. Interactions with fellow students and exposure to friends families and parents play important socialization roles, provide normative structuring of behaviors, and shape adolescents aspirations for their future.
School context can influence adolescent behavior by two techniques. First, the school climate may structure norms and values- adolescents see what is common and assume such attitudes, expectations, and behaviors are socially acceptable. For example, if the school norm is to go on to college, adolescents will expect to do so, according to the integrated research. Second, school context impacts attitudes and behaviors through perceived social and economic opportunities available.
The composition of the social and economic status of students parents in the school serves as a model of what students themselves might expect to achieve in their adult lives. We considered the three domains of risk taking: sexual behavior, drug dealing, and weapon carrying. Although our main concern is on individuals integration into school, and the individuals expectations of it. Our conceptual model includes other individual- and school-level variables that tap theoretical processes associated with the supervision of youth behavior, role modeling, and normative climate that operate to influence adolescents propensities to engage in risk behavior. All these three categories have a bad impact on the forming of the individual towards the future. And as a prospect tutor for the young students in their development I would recommend to improve the overall surrounding of adolescents.
It is necessary to encourage the youngsters to become involved in sports. I would say that sports is the overall cure for any risk taking and health destroying behaviors. No matter what conditions surround the individual, if he sets himself some sporting goals he would have less time to do drugs and weapons. Overall moral and physical health grows, and the brighter view of future grows too as a consequence. And with the growth of health the expectations from the future grow along. How can one person think of engaging in risk taking activities if he has settled his future goals and expectations?
Well, actually this happens too, but that is another painful issue that I will not address now. To summarize the information concerning the issue of risk taking behavior in adolescents lives, that I have presented, I would state that this is an ongoing issue that definitely needs improvement. In order to improve the situation with adolescents a number of questions need to be answered. There are many factors that influence their choices, but it is better to find the true reason for every single individual. Moreover this true reason needs to be found by the individual himself. The authorities and tutors just need to help the youngsters in this difficult task.
And I have to add what I have mentioned already that sports evolvement may overcome many problems and also it may help answer many questions that the individual was not able to answer, but was in desperate need of it. Bibliography: Evaluating the role of nothing to lose attitudes on risky behavior in adolescence. Article.
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Research essay sample on Risk Taking Behaviors In Adolescence
