Teenage risk-taking trends

Teenagers take risks.  This is a key part of learning and personal growth. Personal choices allow individuals to assert independence and explore limits.  Developmental psychologists believe that unless individuals explore risk-taking, there is no growth.

Although risk-taking is experimental, some adolescents will be motivated by poor self esteem and lack of confidence.  Impulsive behavoiur and recklessness are strategies used by some adolescents to gain peer approval. The main problem for young people is their seeming inability to evaluate the potential risks and consequences of everyday behaviour . 60% of adolescent deaths are caused by accidents – many of these are the result of risk-taking.

Thrill-seeking, the desire to impress one’s friends, feelings of invincibility and the search for new experiences are all motivating forces that drive teens to act without concern for consequences or without even being able to fully evaluate the potential risks. For example, if a teenager engages in risky behaviour and doesn’t suffer the expected consequences, they are likely to deduce that the behaviour is not risky at all and that adult evaluations cannot be trusted.

This is often the case with drug and alcohol use. Teenagers don’t see drinking, drug use and driving as potentially risky in the same way as adults. For them, the risk is in social rejection – not being seen as cool - if they don’t do what their friends are doing.  Sometimes one risky choice can lead to others. For example, drinking alcohol to intoxication will impair judgement and may result in unwanted sexual activity or violence that would otherwise have been avoided.