Last night I was reading an article, "Is the Teen Brain Too Rational?", in the latest issue of Scientific American Mind. (I'll give you a moment to stop laughing at the idea of teens being too rational.)
A section called "Why Programs Fail" begins, "Traditional intervention programs emphasize the importance of giving teens information about risks and allowing them the freedom to decide for themselves what to do. These programs encourage teens to trade off potentially deadly risks against often transient benefits and assumes that they will see the light" just tell them the risks of HIV infection and unwanted pregnancy, these programs assume, and teens will not engage in unprotected sex."
It goes on to say that the success of these programs is limited and even that is shortlived. Teens do weigh the evidence of risk versus benefits but give more weight to the benefits. Also, if they take a risk without there being any immediate negative consequences, they tend to assume that the risk is lower than it may actually be.
This section is mainly about sex education...and has no mention of programs that promote abstinence. I guess the current theory is that it's still easier to train teens to make good choices (in this case avoiding unprotected sex) than to train parents to be parents. After all, if parents act like parents, it might get in the way of being the teen's buddy and infringe on the teenager's rights.
Newsflash, they have enough buddies and the only right they need is to grow up without messing up their lives. It's the parent's job to teach proper behavior, set down rules, and monitor what they do to make sure they follow the rules. It wouldn't be a 100% fix for the problem. I doubt there is one. But letting them know what you expect and why it's important would be a good start.
Posted by marybeth at December 5, 2006 01:59 PM Science