The Science of Adolescent Risk-Taking Workshop Report (2011) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction: Why Study Adolescence?
1 Introduction: Why Study Adolescence?
Pages 1-5
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A common subject of social commentary in the United States is that young people today begin adolescence too early and leave it too late.2 The decline in the age of onset of menarche for girls -- from approximately age 17 in 1830 to just under age 13 by the middle of the twentieth century (Susman et al., 2010) -- as well as the challenges of achieving financial independence in the current U.S.
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For a substantial number of adolescents, the consequences are severe: they may limit a young person's opportunities to grow into a productive adult, they are the source of lifelong health problems, and they result in a significant risk of injury and death for adolescents.3 Many adolescent risk behaviors -- particularly poor driving, either with or without concomitant use of alcohol or illicit substances, and crime -- also put others at risk, and all of these factors together make the prevention of risk behaviors in adolescence an important public health issue. Risky adolescent driving illustrates well the seriousness of the public health concern.
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. The first workshop featured overviews on the physical and mental health status of adolescents and data trends on the nature, prevalence, historical trends, developmental course, and demographic variations of adolescent risk behaviors, including sexual risk-taking, substance use, criminal behavior, and risky driving.
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They discussed next steps in the science agenda and whether current approaches to the study of adolescent risk behavior should change and, if so, in what ways. This report describes the information presented and discussed at the three workshops and highlights key observations from the evidence that is relevant to adolescent risk prevention and health promotion.4 We note that the workshop series included structured discussions designed to elicit varying research perspectives as well as more formal, data-based presentations -- and that presenters took a variety of approaches to the tasks they were asked to undertake.
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STRUCTURE OF THE REPORT Following this introduction, Chapter 2 sets the stage for an explora tion of the research by providing a portrait of the physical and mental health status of adolescents in the United States and describes the risks some young people are taking. The next three chapters describe theoreti cal explanations for why adolescence is a high-risk stage of development and why some adolescents engage in more risky behaviors than others.
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