The Science of Adolescent Risk-Taking Workshop Report (2011) / Chapter Skim
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6 Looking to the Future
6 Looking to the Future
Pages 90-102
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From page 90... ...
This set of questions is of great importance for two reasons. First, there are strong reasons to think that there are reciprocal dynamics among the many processes that affect adolescents' behavior and risk-taking, so focusing on any one by itself will not lead to full understanding and is less likely to yield effective interventions.
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From page 91... ...
David Hawkins and Kathryn Monahan were asked to reflect on the covariance of problem behaviors in adolescence and to highlight its implications. They noted, for example, that delinquency is positively correlated with defiance, truancy, school misbehavior, problem sexual behavior, academic failure, high school dropout, teenage pregnancy, violence, and risky driving.
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From page 92... ...
Other TABLE 6-1 Risk Factors for Adolescent Problem Behaviors Depression Substance Teen School and Risk Factors Abuse Delinquency Pregnancy Dropout Violence Anxiety Community Availability of ✔ ✔ drugs Availability of ✔ ✔ firearms Community ✔ ✔ ✔ laws and norms favorable toward drug use, firearms, and crime Media ✔ portrayals of violence Transitions and ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ mobility Low ✔ ✔ ✔ neighborhood attachment and community disorganization Extreme ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ economic deprivation Family Family history ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ of the problem behavior
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From page 93... ...
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE TABLE 6-1 Continued Depression Substance Teen School and Risk Factors Abuse Delinquency Pregnancy Dropout Violence Anxiety Family ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ management problems Family conflict ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Favorable ✔ ✔ ✔ parental attitudes and involvement in the problem behavior School Academic ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ failure beginning in late elementary school Lack of ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ commitment to school Individual/Peer Early and ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ persistent antisocial behavior Alienation and ✔ ✔ ✔ rebelliousness Friends who ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ engage in the problem behavior Favorable ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ attitude toward the problem behavior Early initiation ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ of the problem behavior Constitutional ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ factors SOURCE: Hawkins and Monahan presentation (data from Brooke-Weiss et al., 2008)
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From page 94... ...
Data from Pollard et al., 1999. protective factors include social and environmental opportunities, such as prosocial activities and influences; bonding with positive peers, adults, and institutions; and clear standards for healthy behavior.
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From page 95... ...
This underscores the importance of intervention approaches that address both the unique determinants of the risk behavior being targeted and common determinants that operate across risk behaviors. Common Mechanisms of Influence Underlie Certain Risk-Taking Behaviors The workshop presenters described a number of phenomena that all adolescents share to a greater or lesser degree, including facets of brain development and biological processes, as well as social and developmental challenges, despite cultural variations.
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From page 96... ...
Discussant Laurie Chassin highlighted the fact that many of the presentations provided evidence that interventions can do that, in a cost-effective manner, across multiple outcomes. Although there can be a tension between a focus on universal, policy-based intervention and the goal of targeting particular risk factors and high-risk populations, she pointed out that these are not mutually exclusive or competing approaches intellectually, scientifically, or theoretically.
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From page 97... ...
Some evidence has supported the benefits of a number of policies in the indicated category, such as reducing handgun availability, reducing the social availability of tobacco and alcohol, placing restrictions on public drinking and smoking, and reducing the retail and social availability of illicit drugs -- but further replication is needed. Other strategies, in the targeted category, have shown promise but have not been adequately examined, including housing vouchers to stimulate geographic upward mobility, access to condoms and sexual counseling, alcohol detection for auto ignition, and the use of genetics to identify a risk for alcohol or drug dependence.
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From page 98... ...
For example, the discussion highlighted the importance of analyzing the degree of evidence needed to support policy decisions and benefit-cost analyses, including investigation of the comparative scope and costs of targeted versus universal interventions. Universal, indicated, and targeted interventions appear to have important roles to play, but their effects would be likely to be magnified if they were integrated to support one another, participants suggested.
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From page 99... ...
Participants saw an urgent need to anticipate future technological developments and how they will affect adolescents, as well as means of communicating with them. Discussants also noted a need to reconsider current theoretical models of many aspects of adolescent behavior in light of the influences of new media.
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From page 100... ...
As noted in the discussions, each field has an array of facts to contribute to the understanding of the causes of risk-taking, but disciplines rarely integrate their knowledge to produce innovative new theoretical perspectives and preventive interventions. Emerging research holds significant promise for supporting the design, implementation, and evaluation of programs for adolescents -- and further integration promises to amplify the value of work in each field.
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From page 101... ...
Once these determinants are known, it is important to develop effective intervention strategies to either change the determinants or minimize or accentuate their influence. The vast majority of research discussed in the workshops focused on identifying the determinants of adolescent behavior, with much less attention to the extant scientific knowledge base for changing them.
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From page 102... ...
0 THE SCIENCE OF ADOLESCENT RISK-TAKING interplay between those determinants; and in clarifying the emergence and changes of these determinants through childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. The field has made progress in integrating knowledge about the role of biology in all of these processes and in identifying core scientific principles on which to base the design of developmentally appropriate interventions for changing these determinants.
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