Risky behaviors in adolescents

Knowledge about adolescent risk behavior has expanded in the past several decades. Risk behaviors, such as substance use, violent behavior and sexual risk behavior are behaviors that can directly or indirectly compromise well-being and health of young people. Studies showed that there are many risk factors leading to engage in risk behaviors. Studies also showed that risk behaviors can result in many negative outcomes or adverse consequences. However, there is great heterogeneity in the linkage between involvement in risk behaviors and the likelihood of adverse outcomes, and there is also great heterogeneity in the linkage between exposure to risk factors and the likelihood of involvement in risk behaviors as well. These facts lead the researchers to focus on the identification and assessment of protective factors and the concept of resilliency. Researches over the past decade also lead to changing of intervention programme strategies from risk reduction to healthy youth development. These strategies aim to provide all youth with the support, relationship, experiences, resources, and opportunities needed to become successful and competent adults. They are promising approaches for preventing or reducing a wide range of adolescent health-risk behaviors. In this article, we briefly review what we know about risk behaviors, their risk and protective factors and healthy youth development, and provide definitions of each of these concepts. (Turk Arch Ped 2009: 44: 1-6