4 Troubled Teens Blog

One in seven teenagers, or about 15 percent, believe that they have only a 50 percent chance of living to age 35 -- a fear that experts have associated with greater risk-taking.

Teams who share this pessimistic attitude tend to engage in dangerous behaviors such as attempting suicide, using illegal drugs, getting into fights that require medical care, engaging in unprotected sex.

The results of these behaviors include being arrested, falling behind in school, experiencing developmental delays, and contracting diseases including HIV/AIDS.

These findings are the result of a new study from the University of Minnesota:

• Dr. Wagman Borowsky and his colleagues studied 20,594 teenagers in the seventh through 12th grades.
• Dr. Borowsky's team interviewed the teens periodically to obtain their views on personal mortality and to find out the degree to which they engaged in risky behaviors.
• Minority youth tended to be more pessimistic about how long they would survive.

The study appeared in the journal Pediatrics.

Labels: risky_behaviors, attitudes, death

Posted By: Aspen/CRC 0 Comments

Last September, the Idaho Meth Project surveyed more than 3000 junior and senior high school students to learn what the prevailing attitudes were about methamphetamine use.

"About 1 in 4 students said they believed meth could make them happy, and help them lose weight. Jose Deniz, CSI student says, 'I think that's exactly it. They're just not educated into exactly what it does to your body and how it deteriorates you. If they were to get some information or knowledge on it, they would probably think differently."

In response to the survey results, the Idaho Meth Project is conducting a radio and television campaign in hopes of educating teens on destructive meth use can be. Read more at KMVT.com.

Labels: prevention, education, attitudes

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 0 Comments