{"id":38263,"date":"2016-03-29T10:00:53","date_gmt":"2016-03-29T14:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=38263"},"modified":"2018-12-20T11:37:49","modified_gmt":"2018-12-20T16:37:49","slug":"podcast-understanding-risk-taking-behaviours-in-adolescence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2016\/03\/podcast-understanding-risk-taking-behaviours-in-adolescence\/","title":{"rendered":"PODCAST: Understanding risk-taking behaviours in adolescence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Adolescence is a time of great change, for individuals, their families and society. People in this age group are leaving childhood behind as they figure out what it means to be an adult.<\/p>\n<p>In the process, some may engage in what can be considered \u201crisky beheviours.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt can be something as typical and benign as asking someone out on a date or befriending somebody new or it could be way on the other end and something that\u2019s very high risk, like committing a crime or experimenting with drugs,\u201d says Elizabeth Shulman, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/255749989&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe define risk as including the frequency of those behaviours and how those behaviours really complicate or interfere with daily functioning,\u201d adds Bill Helmeczi, director of Mental Health Services at Pathstone Mental Health.<\/p>\n<p>Helmeczi and Shulman are guests on Brock University\u2019s latest podcast \u201cUnderstanding risk-taking behaviours in adolescence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The two explore definitions and examples of \u201crisk-taking behaviour\u201d and discuss the biological, psychological and social factors that contribute to these behaviours.<\/p>\n<p>Shulman says hers and other research shows that peers have huge impacts on how adolescents make decisions, often motivating each other to take risks.<\/p>\n<p>This goes hand-in-hand with adolescents\u2019 brain development, which in the early stages is very sensitive to seeking out rewards.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the same time as you have this heightened sensitization to reward, you have this gradually developing impulse control system,\u201d says Shulman. \u201cAll of these potential rewards are out there that don\u2019t have a strong restraint system in place yet; the brakes aren\u2019t fully developed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Helmeczi urges parents to keep the communication lines open.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou want to be able to have them come to you when they think maybe something is going out of their control,\u201d he says. \u201cThe worst thing would be to be confrontational.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both Helmeczi and Shulman say there are many positive risk-taking behaviours during these years that enable youth to develop skills, hobbies and lay the groundwork for a successful adulthood.<\/p>\n<div class=\"flexvideo\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fhHMIiypucU\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Adolescence is a time of great change, for individuals, their families and society. People in this age group are leaving childhood behind as they figure out what it means to be an adult.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":38264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3319,5],"tags":[3970,2420,546,3969,1345,29],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38263"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38265,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38263\/revisions\/38265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}