Adolescent Risk Behaviors: Why Teens Experiment and Strategies to Keep Them Safe (Current Perspectives in Psychology)

✍ Scribed by Professor David A. Wolfe, Professor Peter G. Jaffe, Claire V. Crooks

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 293
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book focuses on the crucial role that relationships play in the lives of teenagers.  The authors particularly examine the ways that healthy relationships can help teens avoid such common risk behaviors as substance abuse, dating violence, sexual assault, and unsafe sexual practices. Addressing the current lack of effective prevention programs for teens, they present new strategies for encouraging healthy choices. The book first traces differences between the “rules of relating” for boys and girls and discusses typical and atypical patterns of experimentation in teens. The authors identify the common link among risk behaviors: the relationship connection. In the second part of the book, they examine the principles of successful programs used by schools and communities to cultivate healthy adolescent development. An illuminating conclusion describes the key ingredients for engaging adolescents, their parents, teachers, and communities in the effort to promote healthy, nonviolent relationships among teens.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 8
Series Foreword......Page 10
Preface......Page 12
Acknowledgments......Page 16
1 Valuing Adolescence......Page 18
2 Learning the Rules of Relating......Page 45
3 The Dark Side of the Rules......Page 70
4 Choices and Pressures of Today’s Youth......Page 91
5 Making Sense of Making Choices......Page 117
6 What Works in Prevention: Promises and Pitfalls......Page 145
7 The Blueprint: Best Principles for Program Design......Page 169
8 The Delivery: Best Practices for Strengthening Parternships and Managing Risks......Page 193
9 The Context: Overcoming Barriers and Engaging Schools......Page 216
10 The Evolution of Universal Efforts to Reduce Adolescent Risk Behaviors......Page 241
References......Page 254
Index......Page 284