Michael Jackson
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Cyndi Sarnoff-Ross is a licensed psychotherapist with almost twenty years of clinical experience in the fields of clinical psychology and organizational management br br She has worked extensively with a wide variety of…
FAST FACTS
Teens with Fatalistic Attitudes Engage in Risky Behaviors
A survey was done using more than 20,000 teenagers, which resulted in a disturbing outcome. Almost 15% of these teens had the belief that they would die at a young age. A commonly held belief about why teens engage in risky behavior is that they feel they are immortal, invincible and somehow impervious to harm. It has also been assumed that these youth do not understand the consequences of their behavior. Based on this study many teens reported using drugs and engaging in risky behavior because they felt hopeless about their future. This study was conducted at the University of Minnesota and was authored by Dr. Iris Borowsky. In essence, these teens felt that they didn't have much to lose and therefore they had little regard for their own well-being.
It turns out that the teens with the more fatalistic attitude were not more likely to die early as a result of their belief system but they were more likely than their more optimistic counterparts to engage in activities that could eventually lead to an early demise. This belief that one may die young, in some cases, may be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
It is important to note that there were cultural considerations in this study and many of those teens with negative visions may have had good reason to be pessimistic. Blacks, Native Americans and low-income teens, all who are disproportionately exposed to more adversity and violence, were more likely to report that they would live a relatively short life.
This study has profound implications on the possibility of detecting a teen's propensity for risk taking behavior. Simply asking the question about life expectancy may provide answers that foreshadow future difficulties. This is important information for Pedestrians, school teachers, parents and anyone that works with children and preteens. It may offer an early warning signal that lets the adults know that a teen is at risk and support and counseling can be offered. By the time a teen reaches a therapist's office negative patterns of behavior have been established. It is not until the parents or school feel that they themselves can no longer manage a teen that they seek out the help of a professional. If we could have information about the potential for risk taking behavior, before the actual behavior begins, it would go a long way towards servicing the needs of at risk youth.
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Displaying comments 17-1 of 17
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p s Im a 56 yr old g-pa
God Bless
What makes the second hypothesis false is the well-supported fact that we are a species that evolved to take risks in certain environments in which we would have had a substantial amount to gain from doing so. Young men have more to gain in the currency of social status by taking risks than women do, which is why you find so many more taking those risks. Again, a substantial amount of evidence shows with a good level of certainty that women prefer men who have lots of friends, money, and other kinds of social status. Taking risks within a group is one such way of attaining said status, though there are many others. Men have evolved to match the preferences of women because that is what gets their genes into the next generation.
Though culture certainly has a role to play, evidence suggests it is around %50. Granted, that is a big 50, but it is a 50 that is built on the platform of the default settings that evolution by natural selection has programmed into us.
Also, we should expect to find men in low-income areas to be more inclined to take risks precisely because they stand to gain more for taking those risks. If they don't take those risks, they face a life of being the low man on the totem pole, which is no way to secure an income or have a family. Strange as it may seem, risk taking is adaptive for our species. And we aren't the only species that does it. Peacock feathers are incredibly risky for the young peacock because they attract predators. They also attract females, so there is an ecological balance in which some young peacocks are killed because of their feathers while others live long enough to mate and have more ornamented offspring. It is cruel, but it is life. We can only hope to improve the economic situation of our risk-taking brethren so that they don't feel the need to do so as much.
Anecdotally, I am a young man, and I take lots of risks with action sports. They are exhilirating, and I wouldn't trade any of my greatest moments for anything. They were also my riskiest moments, but that rush is so great that words can hardly describe it. I am programmed to love taking risks. It actually makes me happy. The rush I get doesn't "justify" it, but it does give context and perspective. I know people who would rather die than live another day without the joy of taking risks. It gives life color. I think that as a society, we need to direct risk taking to a constructive place where it is more measured and controlled. I wear a helmet when I'm out snowboarding. It is but one of many precautions I take to ensure that my risks aren't "stupid," whatever that may mean.
To conclude, it is false to assume that all variation amongst individuals is due to culture alone. Behavior genetics studies show that culture counts for %50. The rest is the code in the genes that built us. I should also mention that we still don't know much about the %50 culture part. We find many more similarities between identical twins than are explained by culture. The genetic contribution for them is somewhere around %80. In time, it is likely that we will find that many of our cultural "ideas" are outgrowths of the nature our genes built for us. The idea of marriage didn't just pop up out of nowhere. It was a way for men and women to present a union to a group, almost as a way of saying, "He/She's mine. Don't you dare touch him/her or everybody in our tribe will know what you are up to." This, in turn, is built on the platform of genes. It's good for men's genes when their wives don't cheat because it guarantees their fatherhood. Similarly, it is good for women when their men don't cheat because it means their man is likely to stick around to care for the kid. We created a tradition around our nature and we called it culture.
I have been blessed to know many people who are making a difference in the lives of some youth. It gives me hope. There are those people who have lived through hell who are affected to make a difference in the world. There are also those who have not lived it, who are willing to make a difference in the world. I believe the youth that are blessed by such people will make a difference in their parenting, which is an extremely important part of the equation. Personal responsibility is taught by those who live it, it is "caught" in growing up or by personal conviction.
So much money is spent on studies by the government to report statistics that cannot truly be helped by more money being spent by the government on a program that doesn't work. Does knowing the statistics help anyone? Surely, the money could be put to better use. (not to mention, our government is spending money we don't truly have, it's all borrowed)
Becky
My mother received no counselling whatsoever for her abuse, she has lived her entire 70 year life without help, tell me, and convince me, how would anybody have been able to help her given that she never believed that such help existed? She was abused by both her parents, supposedly the two most important people in her life, and was led to believe that that was normal. This is the point that I am trying to make, my mum could quite easily have gone off the rails, but didn't, but I bet you there are millions of people out there that live in the western world who could tell similar stories and justifiably hate society for letting them down, and act accordingly. Make no mistake, SOCIETY let my mother down.
You talk of intervention, but that doesn't get out to everybody, because sadly it is impossible to do so, so without intervention we see these poor souls spend their "conseqence time" eventually in jail, where they belong? I think not.
You are right to say I know very few slum kids, the fact is I know none, I live in Australia, and whilst homelessness exists it is obviously not to the same degree that it happens in your very proud country.
I taught a class of slum kids aged 10 (grade 5) in an after-school program and in the main they were eager to learn -- once they knew that somebody actually cared if they learned, and particularly once they understood the advantage in learning. There were little girls who were the *mothers* in their families because their mothers were worthless lumps or absent on their own adventures (prostitution, drug addiction, crime, *partying*) and either they looked after their siblings or nobody did. The program had a community garden, and both boys and girls were tending gardens that helped feed their siblings and sometimes their mothers.
In both cases -- rich and poor -- the kids were shaped by the worthless or oblivious people around them, but they would respond to the other sort if people around them took an interest or showed them a better way. Up to a point. The ones that did not respond and that ended up in prison or reform school or boot camp were also an example -- of actions = consequences. If there are no consequences save some liberal whining *Oh those poor babies! See what WE did to them!* they will go on to be even more worthless and dangerous to the world. There are consequnces for good behaviour and for bad behaviour. Be sure these kids reap what they sow. That is the way to turn them around.
God Bless
If this cluster of people fail us then we will be menaces to society, and why? Because that is what we have been taught, how can we know better unless we have been taught so? It is easy as a do-gooder to throw it back onto the individual to be responsible for their actions, but I do not agree with this belief, it is a short sighted view, and an opinion invariably cast by one who has been more fortunate of a better upbringing.
Children are innocent, and therefore vulnerable, and sadly, for a proportion of them, they are robbed, they are taken advantage of and wounded, for some, mortally. Make no mistake, we are all products of our upbringings and live our lives according to that blueprint, with the odd exception.
The odds are that a majority of this group would have been brought up abusively, they would not have been properly protected by society when help was needed the most, and would not turn to it for help later on, instead taking the law into their own hands, and being punished for it accordingly. I know I have wandered off here somewhat, but I do believe that this group take such risks because they have be poorly treated and educated in their most important formative years, a fact that this article does not necessarily highlight.
Most of the people who were sure they would die young are still around making rabbit hash of the world by pushing sex, drugs, and boo-hooing over Michael Jackson who of cousre pushed sex and drugs through his lifetime and his music. Many of those crying over his self-inflicted demise will follow him into his grave, unless the parents who are crying right next to them start acting like adults and help them clean up their act.
And just for your information, the Blacks and *Native Americans* [Indians] who are *being exposed to* a wretched environment are in fact being exposed to it by the example of their wretched parent(s) who have been taught by the same Hippies who planned to die young, that they are entitled to a free ride on the gravy train to the Big Rock Candy Mountain for life, and have discovered that the world does not in fact work that way...and as they rotate in and out of rehab, prison, foster care and Programs, they are passing along their screwed up lives to their kids.
We will only see a diminution of this problem when we jerk this world back to Personal Responsibility and stop blaming everybody else for the fact that our personal surroundings and circumstances suck. It IS their own fault. THEY need to clean up their act.
Cris, LMFT