Studies have linked risky behavior in teens to a variety of factors, including chemical imbalances, peer pressure, trauma, exposure to lead, too much protein and not enough carbohydrates, rejection by peers and television. Risky behavior has also long been identified with race and ethnicity and family income and structure. But in the fall 1998 issue of the Journal of American Psychology, neuropsychologist Deborah Yurgelun-Todd, Director of Neuropsychology and Cognitive Neuroimaging at McLean Hospital Brain Imaging Center, the psychiatric teaching hospital at Harvard University, linked risky behavior in teens to their underdeveloped prefrontal cortexes.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to compare the emotional processing of healthy 10- to 18-year-olds with that of normal adults, researchers focused on the level of brain activity in the amygdala, a region that guides instinctual or “gut” reactions, and the frontal lobe, the seat of rationalization and reasoning. They found that “when young adolescents process emotion, the level of brain activity in the amygdala is higher than the activity in the frontal lobe. However, as adolescents progress into adulthood, there is an age-related shift: activation in the amygdala decreases while activity in the frontal lobe increases,” according to the study’s published results.

“These results suggest that adolescents are more prone to react with ‘gut instinct’ when they process emotions, but as they mature into early adulthood, they are able to temper their instinctive ‘gut reaction’ response with rational, reasoned responses,” says Yurgelun-Todd.

This gut instinct, combined with raging hormones, peer pressure and the stresses of life—especially in these times of terrorism and war—can equal some otherwise intelligent teens doing some stupid stuff, including experimentation with drugs and alcohol, self-injuring such as cutting, racing cars, playing chicken with traffic, unsafe sexual practices, acts of aggression or violence, petty crimes such as theft, etc.

And though in many ways, risk taking for teens is the norm—it is how they grow and develop and try new things—risk taking becomes a problem when it becomes a way of life. Robert W. Blum, MD, PhD, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota found in the study, “Protecting teens: Beyond Race, Income and Family Structure,” part of the congressionally mandated Nationally Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, known as Add Health, that unhealthy behavior in teens was linked to “having close friends who drink or smoke or who are involved in weapon-related violence, having a friend who has attempted suicide and having problems with school work were linked to” substance abuse, weapon-related violence and suicidal thoughts and attempts (for white and Hispanic students, in particular).

Blum says, “Too many kids—rich and poor—are left to their own devices. Kids need structure to grow and to be healthy.” It is up to parents and educators and caring adults to provide that structure for teens and to help them make safe decisions.

Most teens’ risky behavior peaks between the hours of three and eight p.m., what some child psychologists have termed the “witching hour”. A report from the U.S. Attorney’s General’s Office states, “When we send millions of young people out on the streets after school with no responsible supervision or constructive activities, we reap a massive dose of juvenile crime.”

Other risky behaviors for teens, besides crime, that increase during the after school hours include tobacco usage, illegal drug usage, firearm “play”, drinking and drunk driving and sexual activity, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

Some parents and health care professionals may think that religion keeps kids from risky behaviors, but researchers at Pennsylvania State University found that “adolescents who were more religious were healthier…Yet, in some cases, oddly, being religious actually increased a teen’s risky behavior…Adolescents with religious parents were more likely to report driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol.” These teens were also less like to wear seatbelts. Researcher Grace O’Neill says, “Logic would say this is backward—but religious people tend to believe, ‘If I’m going to die, I’m going to die.”

So what can parents do to help their risk-taking teens, especially during this time of high stress from terrorism, war, crime increases, etc.? University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers suggest parents start by working with issues that are less controversial and threatening, to provide teens with relatively safe opportunities to practice their decision-making skills. For example, let your teen determine which after-school activities to participate in. This way your teen gets to make a decision for himself and also finds something positive to occupy his time during some of the “witching hours”. Other “safe” decisions you may permit your child to make include hair color, number of earrings, etc.—things that aren’t life-threatening and can be easily changed. By starting with smaller decisions that allow your teen to develop his sense of self as well as his decision-making skills, you are helping him build positive lifelong learning patterns.

Like in some many other areas of your teen’s life, open and nonjudgmental communication can be the key to limiting risky behavior, both in the frequency of occurrence and in the scope (amount of danger) of the behavior. Most of life is about taking risks; it is how we grow, develop, explore and learn. By maintaining a positive family environment and by modeling positive risk-taking, we can help our teens through this risk-taking, prefrontal cortex developmental time.

Jill L. Ferguson is a writer, editor, public speaker and professor of Creative Writing, Literature and Communication at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She writes often about parenting and teen topics. In the 1990s, she worked as a substance abuse and violence prevention consultanat. Her novel about teenage angst, Sometimes Art Can't Save You, was published in October 2005 by In Your Face Ink LLC (http://www.inyourfaceink.com).

Biologically, young women are more susceptible to HIV infection than older women. Because they make up a large proportion of the sexually active population of developing countries, a large proportion of new infections occur in this age group. A survey conduct by Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation of three brothels in southwest region in Bangladesh, this study did point out that almost 16% of sex workers enter the profession before the age of 18 years, and 30% enter between 18 to 24 years of age. Approximately 10% of prostitutes belong to the scheduled castes minority people.

The HIV/AIDS programme specialist Mr. Mohammad Khairul Alam said, “several social norms and immature behavior fueled of this disease to scatter rapidly. There are several social components link to develop this harmful situation. Poverty-behind to force it, Gender discrimination plays a vital role; Frustration & risk behavior help to sink humanity resulting infection. The link between poverty & gender discrimination are help to decline socio economic prosperity. This link creates several anti social poisonous issues also. Such as trafficking to prostitute, sell sex for earn or living, break down family norm to create frustration and driven drug point. We notice easily that Illiteracy is the main watchword of all circumstance. So it is not easy to remove it from the society, several programs & strategy are needed to gain sustainable position”.

In some cultures, young women are sexually abused by older men in the belief that they are less likely to be infected with HIV or even that sex with a young woman who is a virgin is a cure for HIV/AIDS. Moreover, young people are often less likely to have access to the information and means to protect themselves from HIV infection. For all of these reasons, UNFPA is right to make young people a focus of HIV/AIDS prevention programmes. In some countries, adolescents aged 10 to 15 should be a priority, as these are the years when sexual initiation occurs and sexual attitudes and behaviours are established. In these countries, HIV/AIDS prevention messages should focus on younger youth to be effective. Programmes of sex education and safe sex promotion for pre-teens and young teenagers have been successfully implemented in countries as diverse as Uganda and Sweden.

Recently, ‘Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallan Foundation’ response to HIV/AIDS has focused mostly on three types of work: community mobilization for prevention through the promotion of fidelity, condom-use and abstinence; advocacy on access to affordable treatments, targeted at medicine producers and international donor organizations; and work to ‘mainstream’ support to AIDS-affected individuals and communities into poverty mitigation work. HIV/AIDS has good relation between poverty and gender inequality. Without decline gender discrimination, poverty, all effort will destroy to prevent HIV/AIDS or sustainable development of this sector.

Zannat Ara Naznin

Gender Consultant

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Zannat@37.com

• Teens and Body Piercings


• Astronomy for Children - Teaching Children through Astronomy


• Organizing a School Classroom Party


• Post-Indigos: The Crystal Kids


• Garden Projects for Kids


• Glow-in-the-Dark Scavenger Hunt


• Teenage Louts


• Lifebooks: Helping Your Children Through Scary Times


• Teaching Children that Being Different Isn’t “Special”


• Halter Prom Dress