Kristy Atkins
Risky behaviors are defined as those that have adverse effects on the development and well being of youth or behaviors which prevent them from being successful in the future and in their development. These types of behaviors include fighting, substance abuse, unprotected sex, self mutilating, wreck less driving, suicide attempts, even unhealthy eating. Teens often make the choice to partake in these risky behaviors because of low self esteem, being around a negative group of peers, little to low engagement in school, poor communication between the parent and the child, little to no parental monitoring, and lack of support from family.
American society is a big influence on risky behaviors amongst youths nowadays. It's all over the television and the radio, magazines, and even in everyday life. Society will glamorize this type of behavior by making television shows like 16 and pregnant. This isn't giving the youth a negative view of such risky behaviors, in fact it is the complete opposite because now young teens are believing that they can become famous on a television show by becoming a teenage mom.
The two main risk factors in the article are family and peers. Family because if there isn't an open line of communication and constant monitoring of the child's activities then they are more at risk of looking elsewhere for that type of acceptance, at any risk; and peers because young kids want to fit in. They want to be accepted, and will typically follow down the path of the "cool" kids in order to do so.
In the text, renegotiated relationship basically means that while