Risky Behavior - Term Paper Example

As the children develop into adolescents, they experience various changes in terms of their emotions, attitudes as well as behaviors. The adolescent period is thus full of challenges that come with it. The adolescent period not only puts strain on the adolescents but also on the care takers or parents. The period tests the relationships that the adolescent has with the parents and at the same time expose them to factors that could even threaten their own lives. The greatest challenge that the adolescents face is the engagement in risky behaviors.

The adolescent period makes the adolescents more exposed to risky behaviors. The most common risky sexual behaviors that the adolescents face is the use of drugs and the engagement in unprotected sex (Alberts, Elkind, and Ginsberg, 2007).The adolescents engage in the consumption of alcohol as well as other drugs. The risky behavior of the adolescents engaging in drug abuse is influenced by factors such as peer pressure and mental disorders. In the adolescent period, peer pressure influences the behavior of the adolescents to embrace the abuse of drugs.

Due to the adolescent stage being characterized by various changes, the adolescents would time to time be corrected. The correction of the adolescents makes them feel rejected and useless in the society and this makes them depressed. The depression experienced is what propagates them to engage in the abuse of drugs thinking that they will help alleviate the mood or the feelings that they have (King, Molina and Chassin, 2009). The abuse of drugs among the adolescents can be avoided by carrying out education and sensitization programs to the youths on drugs abuse.

This will bring about increased awareness on drugs abuse hence the adolescents will refrain from using the drugs. Those who are already victims of drugs abuse ought to be placed under counseling and rehabilitation programs. The counseling and rehabilitation programs will equip them with coping skills to avoid the use of drugs (Fang, Schinke and Cole, 2009).The engagement of adolescents in unprotected sex is facilitated by various factors. The most common cause of students to participate in unprotected sex is peer pressure.

The adolescent stage is characterized by peer pressure directing post of the activities undertaken. The adolescents tend to act on issues based on the influence that they receive from others within that age group. Unfortunately, the influence at that age group encourages the practice of unprotected sex. Education also determines the engagement of adolescents in unprotected sex. Most of the adolescents are not enlightened with sex education. The society lacks mechanisms that support the education on the matters that pertains sex.

Most of the people expected to offer this information to the adolescents shy away from this responsibility (Alberts, Elkind, and Ginsberg, 2007). This makes the adolescents to engage in the practice without knowledge of what unprotected sex poses to their health and the society as a whole. As a result of the adolescents engaging in unprotected sex, we tend to have a majority of them having their dreams cut short. This is attributed by the effects that unprotected sex has in their lives. The practice in unprotected sex leaves most f the adolescents with scars that last their entire life time.

Some of the effects of unprotected sex include unwanted pregnancies and infections. Sex education will enable the adolescents avoid engaging in unprotected sex. The sex education will enable the adolescents to know the dangers associated with unprotected sex as well as the means they can use to protect themselves if they have to engage in sex (Thorlindsson and Bernburg, 2006).ReferencesAlberts, A., Elkind, D., and Ginsberg, S. (2007). The personal fable and risk-taking in early adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 36(1), 71-76.Fang, L., Schinke, S. P., & Cole, K. (2009). Underage drinking among young adolescent girls: The role of family processes.

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 23(4), 708-714.King, K. M., Molina, B. S. G., & Chassin, L. (2009). Prospective relations between growth in drinking and familial stressors across adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118(3),610-622.Thorlindsson, T., & Bernburg, J.G. (2006). Peer groups and substance use: Examining the direct and interactive effect of leisure activity. Adolescence, 41(162), 321-339.