Risk Behaviors

For youth living in America at the beginning of the third millennium, this is the best of times and the worst of times. New opportunities are available as a result of the global economy and technological advances that mean many more possibilities for youth in terms of quality of life, employment, and entertainment. However, these are the worst times for many youth, because their life opportunities are being squandered across America—from violence; from drug and alcohol use and abuse; from unsafe sex; from poor nutrition; and from persistent and pervasive poverty. Such risks to the life opportunities of American youth are occurring at disturbingly high levels. Indeed, youth experience school failure, under-achievement, and dropout; crime; teenage pregnancy and parenting; lack of job preparedness; and challenges to their health (e.g., lack of immunizations, inadequate screening for disabilities, insufficient prenatal care, and lack of sufficient infant and childhood medical services; Lerner & Perkins, 2001). They often experience feelings of despair and hopelessness as they see their parents struggle with poverty and see themselves as having little opportunity to do better, that is, to have a life marked by societal respect, achievement, and opportunity (Dryfoos, 1990; Lerner, 1995).

There are four major categories of risk behaviors in youth (which includes late childhood and adolescence): (1) unsafe sex, teenage pregnancy, and teenage parenting; (2) drug and alcohol use and abuse; (3) delinquency, crime, and violence; and (4) school underachievement, school failure, and dropout. Engagement in any one of these behaviors would diminish a youth's opportunities and experiences and even potentially eradicate the youth's chances of living into adulthood (Lerner & Perkins, 2001). Thus, engagement in risk behaviors jeopardizes several areas of youth development: (a) physical health and physical growth, (b) the accomplishment of normal developmental tasks, (c) the fulfillment of expected social roles, (d) the acquisition of essential skills, (e) the achievement of a sense of adequacy and competence, and (f) the appropriate preparation for the next developmental period of the life span (i.e., young adulthood for adolescents; e.g., Jessor, Turbin, & Costa, 1998).

There are approximately 40 million American youth between the ages of 10 and 19 years (Yax, 2001). According to Dryfoos (1990), 50% of these adolescents engage in two or more of the categories of risk behaviors mentioned, and approximately 10% of our nation's youth engage in all of the four categories of risk behaviors.