Youth and Risk-taking Behavior: Why Safety Isn't Always a Priority for Teens

As we begin to usher in the seasons of warmer weather, the news is filled with warnings, statistics, hoping it will do somebody some good, hoping some will pay attention. Unfortunately, too many do not-- which is why warnings go unheeded, and those to whom the warnings are directed needlessly become statistics.

Those who brush it off with a casual "Nothing can happen to me" proceed to go about their everyday plans with the thought "You only live once!" And it's those who espouse this principle who bypass an even more important fact: "You only die once," too.

It has been proven that young people do not acquire a clear grasp on the concept of death until they are in their late twenties-- although one can easily find middle-aged people who, through personality defects which include a lifelong degree of immaturity, never grasp it either; the part of the brain which regulates the connection between risk-taking behavior and the potential consequences thereof is not fully developed during adolescence and early adulthood when the focus of much of American youth is on newfound independence and the desire for "freedom." This is why young people are more prone to reckless and even life-endangering behavior-- odd as it may sound, neither the correlation between risk and death, nor the mature definition of mortality, have yet "sunk in": they do not yet have the full development which leads adults to realize either that dangerous behavior can result in death or the full comprehension of what that word means.

Parents, police, other concerned adults attempt to communicate these facts. Decades ago, even the well-known columnist Ann Landers tried with a nationwide column which appears in many newspapers each year, titled "I can't be dead- I'm only seventeen!" Unfortunately, young people in this age group are notoriously more inclined to listen to peers who encourage risk-taking behavior, than to heed the advice of the older generation whose primary concern it is to assist youth in staying on this earth long enough to actually live their lives. If they have the added element of being influenced by older people who have never grown up, they'll feel "absolutely sure" that any advice coming from adults with common sense is only a matter of "trying to ruin their fun" or "telling them what to do."

Some school districts have implemented policies of alcohol-free, supervised, all-night graduation parties, noting that "grad night" has long been associated with highway fatalities-- many from young people driving under-the-influence, others from being on the road where drunk drivers are present, and general reckless driving itself. This is a good start, but far from solving the problem. Prom night has long been another topic of concern for the same reason; even if a young person does not use alcohol, he or she frequently takes this opportunity to, as a local teen commented on the news last night, "show off in front of friends." The high points of these social experiences quickly changes from dressing up to raising hell-- endangering not only their own lives but the lives of others on the road.

Warmer weather also plays a large role. It is no coincidence that the rate of highway accidents and fatalities significantly rise during the warmer seasons; and, even more distressing, it is not a coincidence that the largest rate of such fatalities are young people. Youth in their late teen and early twenties-- whether drivers or passengers-- are much more likely to die on the road than people in any other age group. It is less about lack of sufficient driving experience than it is about not realizing the connection between actions and consequences, and not yet having an adult concept of what "death" and "dead" mean in terms of permanence.

In addition to the disastrous consequences this too frequently has on young people who are behind the wheel or accompanying a peer, it is "even more so" in terms of driving or riding motorcycles. In this state specifically, where it is a popular interest, a couple of middle-aged adolescents swayed last year's statistics so that without close attention paid to individual situations it may not be as clear-- that with those very few exceptions, nearly every motorcycle fatality involved people in their early twenties. While the media claimed this rate was primarily due to young people's lack of experience in driving, young people's penchant for life-risking behavior is a much more important factor. This can be backed up with my own experiences on the subject-- of the half-dozen individuals I have personally known who were killed in motorcycle crashes, only one was alcohol-related, every single one was wearing a helmet, and every one was under twenty-one years of age.

There is a certain degree of risk involved in life itself; and it is not to say that anyone should go through life with such an extreme of playing-it-safe that they have no "fun," but it is the responsibility of adults who are aware of the fact that undue recklessness can result in death and death is a permanent state from which one does not get another chance, to discourage young people from behavior which puts their lives at risk.