Awareness and knowledge of child and adolescent risky behaviors: A parent's perspective
Grant
Overview
Affiliation
View All
Overview
Abstract
Adolescence is a developmental stage often marked by the desire for immediate gratification, experimentation, risk-taking, and an underdeveloped comprehension of risky behaviors (Erikson, 1968), yet it is impossible to know the true prevalence of risk taking during the older childhood and adolescent years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) results of youth risk biennially. Six priority health-risk behaviors are monitored which are leading causes of disability and death for this population. These include injuries/violence, sexual risk, alcohol and other drugs, tobacco is, unhealthy dietary habits, and inadequate physical activity (2013). The latest data, collected in 2011, do not indicated marked improvement in any of these behaviors.
Newer risky behaviors have become more prevalent over the last few years (e.g. psychoactive herb use, Salvia divinorum, sexting, inhalant use/abuse, and self/participant-assisted choking) (Ahern & Falsafi, 2013; Ahern & Greenberg, 2011; Ahern & Mechling, 2013; Mechling & Ahern, 2013). The prevalence of such risk-taking in children and adolescents ages 10 to 17 is unknown. The media covers isolated events when tragedies occur, but unfortunately most parents have little to no idea that their children may be experimenting with these unsafe practices Stanton et al., 2006; Young & Zimmerman, 1998). While previous work has focused on the adolescent perspective of risk, no studies have examined the knowledge and perspectives of parents regarding these selected risk behaviors.
The success of any parent-based interventions for reducing risks associated with these selected behaviors are predicated on parent-youth communication, parental awareness, knowledge, self-efficacy, positive parenting, monitoring and relationship building and involvement. In order to plan for the development and implementation of an intervention for parents in subsequent research, this first phase must be completed to determine how much parents know about these selected risky behaviors, thus the purpose of this research proposal. Given this critical role that parents play with the positive psychosocial development and well-being of their youth, there is an urgent need for this research.
Thus the aim of this qualitative study is to examine the awareness and knowledge of child and adolescent (aged 10 to 17 years) risky behaviors from a parent’s perspective to help inform the development of an intervention of effective education for these parents.
