Adolescent Risk -Taking Assignment
Goal:
Use the available research to develop prevention programs
This
assignment requires you to use the available (scholarly) information about the
research on adolescence and risk taking to think about how you would develop
and implement a prevention program in one “risk” area.
Begin with
the following sources provided by your instructor:
•
Dr.
Linda Mayes discusses the science on adolescent brain development and factors and risks that impact decision-making (Yale School of Medicine 12 minute
podcast (Teen Brains Wired to Take Risks)
•
Steinberg,
L. (2007). Risk taking in adolescence: New perspectives from brain and
behavioral science. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 55C59.
•
See
http://bigthink.com/ideas/17989 for Steinberg’s discussion
of these topics.
These sources
present information about several biological and environmental influences on
teen riskCtaking behaviors (for example, unprotected sexual activity, substance
abuse; “reckless driving”; teen violence, etc). The researchers discuss – at
least briefly – a logic that suggests current approaches to creating programs
may not be successful because they have not been grounded in the current
understanding the science of adolescent development.
STEPS TO COMPLETE THIS PAPER
1. This project will require you to
first process, synthesize, and then summarize the information from the
assigned sources. (1 page minimum, 2 page
maximum)
2.
After
you have finished reading and summarizing the main points from the two sources,
conduct further research related to prevention programs for one area of
riskCtaking. (For example,
research on the prevention of reckless driving,
substance abuse, the effectiveness of pregnancy prevention through
abstinence only interventions; HIV prevention; prevention of teen violence.) For
this portion, you must locate at least 2 additional scholarly sources that are
recent (e.g. it is 2012K please do not
include source information older than 5K7
years old unless you have discussed it with your instructor). Here is one link
that describes “scholarly” sources:
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ugl/howdoi/scholarly.html Sources
also may
come
from reputable websites (e.g. .gov; .edu; or websites devoted to
creating