Teen Driving

Study Asks Teens About Risky Behaviors

I hate it when people spend a whole lot of money on a study, and the results just restate the obvious.

In the July issue of the respected magazine “Pediatrics” is the synopsis of a recent survey. Researchers tried to figure out why teens get involved in risky behaviors, like erratic teen driving.

Don’t waste your time running down to the bookstore. I’ll share the conclusion: It turns out some of them just might be depressed.

Duh! Like teenagers aren’t supposed to be susceptible to emotional/psychological disorders like everyone else in humankind?

Researchers interviewed more than 20,000 kids in grades 7 through 12, and 15 percent of them had a bleak view of their futures. They said they did not expect to see the age of 35. As a result of this black-cloud thinking, the article suggests, they got into fights, had unprotected sex, drove recklessly, abused drugs or alcohol and/or contemplated suicide.

What a narrow and naïve concept. What this article is not saying is what is significant to me.

One: All teens get involved in risky behaviors.

Two: Do the math. One-hundred percent, minus 15 percent. That leaves 85 percent of young people who don’t have depression to blame. They are simply willful and ignorant. Know-it-all teens who think they’re 10 feet tall and bulletproof.

I’ve got 18 years as an educator; twelve, by choice, teaching in the high schools. I like these kids because they keep me on my toes. I do my research, talk with colleagues and try to get in the heads of these 14- to 18-year-olds.

Anyone who thinks they’re going to pinpoint some medical phenomenon, some protein deficiency, some specific reason why kids make bad choices is chasing shadows. Brilliant men and women have walked this road before us and haven’t been able to figure it out, other than to conclude that it’s immaturity. (more…)