Adolescents Risk Behaviors and Friendships Essay Example

adolescents has been viewed as a reflection of maturational imbalance between two brain systems that influence decision making; cognitive control systems and reward processing systems (Reniers, Murphy,Lin, Bartolome & Wood, 2016).

The reward system shows a very dramatic change in early adolescents while cognitive system undergoes gradual maturation. This means that the immature cognitive control capacity, paired with increased sensitivity to rewards highly influences the decisions of the adolescents towards a higher risk taking behavior. Furthermore, the elevated reward value of peer presence, acceptance and interactions among the adolescents sensitize more the reward system to potential rewards of greater risky behavior. This simply means that adolescents engaging in similar high risk behaviors will tend to have strong and stable relationships with the peers due to the acceptance and interaction.

According to research, taking of risks involves behavior that at the same time encompasses the chance of a beneficial result or outcome as well as a harmful or negative consequence. Adolescent is characterized by the immature ability to self regulate and elevated reactivity to emotions, thereby making it a period of high susceptibility to the harmful consequences of risk taking. This is the major reason as to why high risk taking behavior increases during adolescence. Research has shown that adolescents are strongly focused on the expectancy of beneficial results rather than the costs associated and to subsist well with the unpredictability of a certain situation (Vorobyev, Kwon, Moe & Parkkola, 2015).

This shows that adolescents are highly experimental hence making them have a high affinity to greater risk taking behaviors. In addition to the high vulnerability of adolescents to engage in high risk behaviors, their substantial amounts of time

spent with their peers are likely to further influence their already their decision to engage in high risk behavior. This shows the reason as to why most relationships among adolescents that engage in high risk behaviors are stronger and stable than those who do not engage in high risk behavior.

Research has shown that individuals especially adolescents who engage in high risk behaviors are more likely to have engaged in substance use. Adolescents and young adults are often the early adopters of new technology especially cell phones. Statistics show that over 83% of 17 year olds possess cell phones. The most used, effective and efficient mode of communication among adolescents using the cell phones is the text based communication. Cell phones and this mode of communication have very potential negative results to the adolescents. Apart from injuries and accidents due to distracted driving, there is emergence of sexualized communication, sexting. Sexting is the act of sending suggestive or sexually explicit photographs or images via text messages (Benotsch, Snipes, Martin & Bull, (2013). The negative outcomes of sexting include mental health problems, legal consequences if the photographs or images are of individuals who are underage and embarrassment if the images happen to be disseminated to the public.

According to an online research carried out on 763 adolescents and young adults on texting and sexting, revealed that over 44% of the number had engaged in sexting. Those who reported to have engaged in sexting were also likely to have recently used drugs. They are also reported to have recently engaged in great risk sexual behaviors such as sex with multiple partners as well as unprotected sex. Out of the

44% that engaged in sexting, 31.58% of them reported to have had sex with a new partner after sexting with them. Adolescents who engaged in sexting also reported to have had a higher number of sex partners compared to those who were not engaged in sexting. Due to the high confidentiality involved with sexting partners, adolescents who engage in this high risk behavior tend to have very strong and stable relationships than those who do not engage in sexting (Benotsch, Snipes, Martin & Bull, (2013). This is due to the fact that incase of dissemination of the sexually explicit images to the public, the sender of the images is likely to be highly embarrassed. This means that such adolescents must have strong relationships so as to protect their dirty secrets.

According to the attachment theory, people internalize their experiences with those who are close to them and form attachment representations of such relationships. These are the attachment representations that shape individual’s perception and the understanding of subsequent interpersonal experiences. Whereas uncaring and rejecting relationships give rise to attachments that are insecure while warm and supportive relationships give rise to attachments that are secure. Secure attachments in friendships are assumed to be crucial for the psychological adjustment.

For adolescents, whenever they are upset they often turn to their friends who they have secure attachments to offer comfort and advice. This means that friendship attachments among the adolescents play a very huge role in influencing the behavior of an adolescent (Launay & Dunbar, 2015). This is due to the fact that close friendship attachments occupy unique and crucial developmental functions during adolescents. This explains the reason as to why

adolescents with high risk behavior tend to have stronger and more stable friendships. This is due to the level of the security of the friendship attachments. The trust among them is very high as well as the comfort hence making them more stable than friendships of adolescents who do not engage in high risk behaviors.

The attachment theory is based and founded on the grounds that the security of attachment is based on relational experiences of the past and still remains stable and strong across the life span. The maintenance of the stability of the attachment security is achieved through inclination to evoke feedback in interpersonal interactions that in turn confirm the internal working models. The attachment of security is assumed to be stable over time; however, internal models that are not in harmony are likely to change the security of attachments. This explains the reason as to why friendships of adolescents engaging in high risk behavior are very closer and more stable (Chow, Ruhl & Buhrmester, 2016). As long as they have a common internal model of high risk behavior, the security of the attachment is bound to last since it is congruent. There is a strong attachment between adolescents that have similar interests because past and present relational experiences impact the attachment security.

Adolescents’ friendships of those participating in high risk behaviors tend to be closer and stable since adolescents are very sensitive to rejection. This means that adolescents tend to evade the rejection by continuing to engage in the high risk behaviors that make them stick together in friendship attachments. In case an adolescent decides to shun such friendships, he or she may not

effectively fit in other friendships since he may be viewed as an outcast and may not be accepted due to his past experiences. This means that the adolescence characteristic of acceptance and belonging play a significant role in holding tight the friendships of adolescents involved in high risk behaviors.

References

• Launay, J. & Dunbar, R. (2015) Playing with Strangers: Which Shared Traits Attract Us Most to New People? University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
• Vorobyev, V., Kwon, M., Moe, & D. Parkkola, R. (2015) Risk-Taking Behavior in a Computerized Driving Task: Brain Activation Correlates of Decision-Making, Outcome, and Peer Influence in Male Adolescent. University Hospital of Tampere, Tampere, Finland.
• Reniers, R., Murphy, L., Lin, A., Bartolome, S. & Wood, S. (2016) Risk Perception and Risk-Taking Behaviour during Adolescence: The Influence of Personality and Gender. 1 University of Birmingham, School of Psychology, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
• Benotsch, E. , Snipes, D., Martin, A. & Bull, S. (2013) Journal of Adolescent Health: Sexting, Substance Use, and Sexual Risk Behavior in Young Adults. Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine.
• Chow, C.M., Ruhl, H. & Buhrmester, D. (2016) Reciprocal associations between friendship attachment and relational experiences in adolescence. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.