Schools

Teen Safety Forum Addresses Reasons for Risky Behaviors

Dr. Yifrah Kaminer from the University of Connecticut discussed the unique challenges faced by adolescents as they mature.

One of the major take-home messages from the teen safety forum held at Suffield High School on Tuesday was simple but sometimes overlooked: Adolescents are not miniature adults.

Dr. Yifrah Kaminer, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Connecticut, said treating teens as if they are emotionally and physiologically the same as adults is not an effective way of communicating with them or limiting their involvement in dangerous behavior. While teens reach intellectual maturity around age 16, they don’t attain full emotional maturity until about age 25.

“It’s very important to find out what is happening in the brains of adolescents,” he said.

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The high incidence of risky behavior among adolescents may come from the gap between intellectual and emotional maturity.

Kaminer said parenting styles are deeply important in regards to teens and risky behavior. He advocated for an empowered parenting style where acceptable and unacceptable behavior styles are clarified but also emphasized that lines of meaningful communication need to be open on both ends. He presented four keys to meaningful interaction: care, empathy, communication and supervision.

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“Low parental involvement and high [levels of] conflict are no good,” he said. “You really need to prove to them you know what the heck you’re doing.”

Kaminer also discussed the relationship between genetics and the environment – nature and nurture – and risky behavior. He said the environment a child grows up in the stronger influence in the first 10 years of life. Genetics begin to play a larger role in development and behavior as children become adolescents. Kaminer said parents have “at least 10 good years” to positively influence children before genetics can begin to interfere with such efforts.

Exposure to high levels violent media, sex on television and R-rated movies, along with overuse of texting and social networks, have been proven to predispose teens to a range of risky behaviors, according to Kaminer.

He also pointed out that increased hormonal levels during puberty effects decision-making processes. Because the body and mind are both still developing, teens use different parts of their brains to understand emotion. While adolescents have developed reward pathways, the parts of the brain involved in deep thinking and responsibility are not completely functional.

Adolescents feel pressure from their peer group to seek pleasure without having a full understanding of the consequences. Parents have to lend their ability to be responsible, think deeply and effectively judge a situation to their children.

Besides advice for parents, Kaminer said a solid knowledge base, high public awareness and strong political will are all also important components for a community working to limit risky teen behaviors.

“The issue is how to understand them,” he said.

Kaminer said teens are the most neglected age group in the human life cycle when it comes to understanding their mental and emotional states. His experience with adolescents comes from both his professional and personal life.

“Each of my two kids have been a case study with me since they were born,” he said.


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