FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JANUARY 5, 1998
UCSF PSYCHIATRIST SHARES INSIGHT ON ADOLESCENT RISK-TAKING DURING UCSF
LECTURE--WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7
Parents play a vital role in their teens' risk-taking, which serves as the
primary tool adolescents use to shape their identities, says an expert in
adolescent development at the University of California San Francisco.
Lynn Ponton, MD, author of The Romance of Risk: Why Teenagers Do the Things
They Do, (Basic Books/Harper Collins Publishers) will discuss her book,
adolescent risk-taking, and tips parents can follow to better understand
their child's behavior at a free UCSF Brown Bag Lecture this week. The
event will take place from 12:10 pm to 1:00 pm on Wednesday, January 7, at
513 Parnassus, Room HSW 300, on the UCSF Campus.
"Many parents would like to believe that biology, peers, and culture are
the dominant influences on their child's risk-taking," says Ponton, who is
a UCSF professor of psychiatry and a practicing psychiatrist. "They fail to
recognize that they model how to take both healthy and unhealthy risks."
In her new book, Ponton examines adolescent risk-taking and parental
response to a child's often dangerous behaviors, such as alcohol and
substance abuse, self-mutilation, disordered eating and unprotected sex.
Ponton describes the lives of 15 troubled teens and their families that are
cases she treated in her San Francisco practice.
She also explores the four possible parent-child relationships--
mother-son, father-son, mother-daughter, and father-daughter--and the
unique dynamics that influence each of these associations.
"Parents get trapped in risk-taking problems based on their own gender
patterns," says Ponton. "For example, American culture discourages
risk-taking in girls. Therefore, some mothers experience difficulty when
attempting to encourage positive risk-taking in their daughters, as well as
remaining conflicted about their own risk-taking."
Positive risk-taking, such as participating in sports, the development of
artistic and creative abilities, travel, volunteer activities and making
new friends, is crucial to an adolescent's healthy development, she says.
Ponton conducted a recent survey of a cross-section of adolescent girls in
the Bay Area and found that 75 percent stopped taking risks at a certain
point in their lives because they became concerned about others'
perceptions of their behavior.
To compensate for their own lack of risk-taking, some girls begin
relationships with males who take frequent, often dangerous risks.
According to Ponton, many girls continue this pattern into womanhood.
While society discourages risk-taking in girls, Ponton notes that both
mothers and fathers are encouraged to promote risk-taking in boys. American
culture also perpetuates the myth that an adolescent boy's "macho spirit"
is damaged if parents seriously discipline a son, she says.
This is especially problematic for many single mothers who fail to
discipline their sons effectively, Ponton notes. Moreover, she says our
culture also disenfranchises mothers who are led to believe that men,
rather than themselves, are the only appropriate role models for adolescent
sons.
"Many parents accept chaos and dangerous behavior as part of adolescence,"
Ponton says. "Therefore, many adults assume that little can be done to
interfere with this tumultuous time and to help a child practice positive
risk-taking."
Societal acceptance of teenage turmoil has delayed investigation of the
more complicated reasons behind adolescent risk-taking, says Ponton. More
important, this has inhibited preventive efforts of individual parents and
society at large, she adds.
The key for all parents in preventing negative risk-taking is to understand
adolescent behavior, Ponton emphasizes. She offers 10 tips:
* All teenagers are going to take risks as a normal part of growing up.
It is the tool an adolescent uses to define and develop his or her identity.
* Inherent in risk-taking is the possibility of failure. Parents must
recognize and support children with this.
* Negative risk-taking is a category of behaviors that can be dangerous
for adolescents, including drinking, smoking, drug use, gang activity and
others.
* Unhealthy risk-taking may appear to be an angry gesture specifically
directed at parents, often understood as "adolescent rebellion." However,
whether healthy or unhealthy, it is part of a teen's struggle to test out
an identity.
* Some adolescent behaviors are deceptive--a teen may genuinely be trying
to take a healthy risk that evolves into more dangerous behavior.
* Red flags that help identify dangerous adolescent risk-taking, or the
increased potential for it to occur, include psychological problems such as
persistent anxiety or depression, problems at school, engaging in illegal
behaviors, and clusters of unhealthy risk-taking.
* Because adolescents need and should take risks, parents need to help
them find healthy opportunities to do so.
* Although adolescents do not usually talk directly with parents about
their negative risk-taking activities, they often offer subtle clues about
their behavior. Parents need to share their own histories of risk-taking
in order to be effective role models.
* Adolescents do look to their parents for advice and modeling about how
to access risks. Parents need to help their teens learn how to evaluate
risks, anticipate the consequences of their choices, and come up with
strategies to divert their energy into healthier activities when necessary.
* Parents need to pay attention to their own current patterns of
risk-taking. Teenagers are watching and imitating, whether they
acknowledge this or not.
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NOTES TO THE MEDIA:
* Reporters are invited to cover Dr. Ponton's Brown Bag talk on Wednesday,
January 7.
* Copies of Ponton's complete list of "Tips for Parents: Understanding
Your Adolescent's Behavior" are available.
* Ponton also will discuss adolescent risk-taking at two upcoming, annual
UCSF symposiums, "Women's Health 2000" and "Teen's Health 2000," to take
place on the UCSF campus on Saturday, March 21.
For more information on any of these listings, call Abby Sinnott in the
UCSF News Services Office at 415/476-2557.
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