Discuss the factors that cause or influence teenagers to engage in types of risky behaviour.

Teenagers are more likely to engage in risky behaviors for a few reasons.  First, the frontal lobe, the part of the brain responsible for higher level thinking, is not fully developed.  Secondly, they do not have years of experience to have taught them how to handle things.  Lastly, the highly level of peer pressure can manipulate them to do things they otherwise would not have done.

Hello! There are a few factors that cause or influence teenagers to engage in types of risky behaviour.

Risky behaviours include:

• smoking
• driving dangerously
• criminal activities, like stealing

So, what are the factors that cause teenagers to engage in risky behaviour?

Brain development

Teenagers' brains are still developing, so they can make decisions that they wouldn't make when they are fully developed. They're still growing up, so parts of their brains that look after impulse control are still maturing.

Peer pressure

Teens are under an awful lot of pressure to be seen as 'cool'. They also might not want to have FOMO, or fear of missing out, so they do things that they might not normally do if they were on their own.

Experience

Also, as teenagers are still embarking on their journeys of life, they haven't got as much experience of knowing when situations are risky or not. This means that they might make a decision that an adult might not purely because they are not aware that the outcome might be bad.

You might want to have a look at this question that was asked back in 2013 for more information: //relationships.blurtit.com/3908726/what-factors-cause-risky-behaviour-amongst-teenagers, and this question that I answered the other day: //health.blurtit.com/4266192/what-is-the-impact-of-risky-behaviour.

I also found this video about the teenage brain and how it affects risky behaviour: