The adolescence stage precedes adulthood. It can be defined as “a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and adulthood, but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage” (Jessor 12).
Generally, puberty is linked with adolescence development. Nonetheless, the onset of puberty may appear in preadolescence especially among females. “Adolescence is characterized by a number of cognitive, emotional, physical and attitudinal changes, which can be a cause of conflict on one hand and positive personality development on the other” (Wolfe and Jaffe 34).
The environment in which adolescents operate has a significant impact on their psychological development. Psychologists contend that bad habits rarely occur among teenagers who interact properly with their parents.
The adolescents usually face myriad development challenges that range from physical to psychological. For instance, they are usually tempted to indulge in risky activities that may interfere with their normal development. It has also been identified that many risky habits that advance in adulthood like smoking normally begin at adolescence. It is in this context that various measures should be taken to mitigate risky conducts that are currently prevalent among the adolescents.
There is a common cliché that teenagers perceive themselves as immune and invulnerable to danger. “This cherished assumption about the adolescent mind is expressed as a truism in countless public health messages aimed at parents of teenagers, and underlies many efforts to educate young people about their risks” (Johnson 67).
Scientific data on youth’s behavior indicates that most of them know that they are vulnerable to various risks. For instance, many adolescent girls know that they are likely to get premarital pregnancies if they are not careful about their sexual activities.
Elaborate studies on the nature of adolescent’s risk taking shows that most of them make rational assumptions when making choices. However, they do not choose to take risks based on a conviction that they are not vulnerable. “Even if adolescents take risks, they mentally weigh them against perceived benefits” (Santrock 267).
Psychologists contend that individuals’ experiences can be represented by specific mental processes. For instance, the brain has the capacity to encode, keep and memorize our experiences. Risk taking action may be based on one or a combination of the mind processing mechanisms.
“According to fuzzy-trace theory, developed by Reyna and her colleague Dr. Charles Brainerd, one of these dual paths to processing risk judgments is highly deliberative and oriented towards facts and details” (Gruber 109). Adolescents are usually guided by this kind of thinking when they choose what to do.
The other process leading to risky judgments involves failing to consider details and focusing much on the general meaning of an incident. This is an intuitive kind of reasoning and it is dependant on emotional reactions. Moreover, it depends on situational cues and it is so categorical.
Life experience and advanced age enables people to employ the gist-based process when they choose what to do. “The tendency toward gist-based reasoning also characterizes relatively expert decision makers in skilled fields such as medicine” (Santrock 345). For example, experienced physicians rarely examine the nature of a scenario, but they are guided by their intuition.
They also tend to be more precise in making decisions as compared to their junior colleagues. Therefore, gist based type of interpretation enables one to come up with better and more reliable choices. “The brain areas that quickly grasp the gist of situations and regulate judgments develop during the teenage years, and do not reach full maturity until the early to mid twenties for most people” (Jessor 125). As such, adolescents can not easily come up with concrete decisions.
Two conclusions can be made for the analysis of risky habits among adolescents. Feeding the teenagers with a lot of facts is not a viable way of helping them develop sound decisions that will enable them to adopt better actions.
Instead, it will facilitate riskier ways of reasoning. “Interventions to be used in this process should enhance categorical thinking concerning the risk” (Jessor 138). Such interventions are also supposed to be less deliberative.
Due to the immature nature of adolescents’ brains, they should not be subjected to environments that can facilitate risky behavior. The society as a whole needs to consider the safety of teenagers. This implies that safety should not be treated as an individual’s responsibility. Interventions that encourage the youth to desist from engaging in risky activities is a significant aspect of a great dedication towards having a healthy and prosperous society. The following strategies can be used to prevent risky behavior.
First, people should not presume that the youth believe that they are perpetual. Credible evidence based on risky behavior analysis depicts that the youth are conscious about the precarious nature of their environment. Moreover, they are not oblivious of the consequences that may possibly arise from risky conducts.
Secondly, adolescents should be guided appropriately so that they can perceive benefits from different perspectives. As such, adolescents will give risks less attention. “This implies that risks will have less appeal if young people perceive greater benefit from alternative, safer courses of action” (Johnson 49).
Positive images can be applied in the process of encouraging the youth to develop positive thinking and healthy activities. On the other hand, negative images are applicable when lessening risky activities. Analogies can also be effective in making the youth focus on categorical thinking that will enable them to stop risky behavior.
The youth can easily recognize potential hazards that can occur within their surroundings. Therefore, they can remain safe if they are sensitized early enough about them (Santrock 45). For example, risk alerts can be posted strategically in areas frequented by the youth. Parents should make risky substances inaccessible to the youth.
For example, parents using drugs should avoid using them in the presence of their children. Proper supervision and guidance of young people is another mechanism for preventing risky activities. For example, the youth should be given counseling services that are geared towards modeling positive conduct among them. Topics on behavior can also be incorporated into the curriculum of various institutions.
This will make the youth to familiarize themselves with information based on developing good conduct. Last but more important, the “youth should be taught to avoid circumstances in which they will need to make an immediate risky choice” (Wolfe and Jaffe 156). For instance, night clubs and parties enhance the chances of the youth indulging in risky ventures.
The above discussion indicates that risky behavior is becoming more prevalent among teenagers. Such risky habits are likely to spiral out of control in the future, if decisive measures are not taken to curb them at present. Elaborate studies on the nature of adolescent’s risk taking behavior shows that most of them make rational assumptions when making choices (Santrock 56).
However, they do not choose to take risks based on a conviction that they are not vulnerable. Therefore, I contend that risky habits can be reduced considerably among teenagers if they receive proper information and guidance. A risky free environment should also be a concern of everyone.
Works Cited
Gruber, Jonathan. Risky Behavior Among Youths: An Economic Analysis. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 2006. Print.
Jessor, Richard. New Perspectives on Adolescent Risk Behavior. London: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Print.
Johnson, Patrick. Adolescents and Risk: Making Sense of Adolescent Psychology. New York: Praeger, 2008. Print.
Santrock, John. A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001. Print.
Wolfe, David and Peter Jaffe. Adolescent Risk Behaviors: Why Teens Experiment and Strategies to Keep Them Safe. New York: Yale University Press, 2006. Print.