Adolescence is a critical period for the development of risky behaviors, like alcohol and drug use, reckless driving, and unsafe sex. As a parent, there is one key strategy that you can use to help ...

Teens who come from close-knit neighborhoods and families are less likely to have sex at a young age, while teens’ schools have less influence on their sexual behavior, a new study led by UC San ...

The study explores how social influences, particularly peer pressure, impact substance use -- and misuse -- among young adults. A confidential online survey on alcohol use was given to 524 students at ...

Between 1999–2021, U.S. adolescents steadily desisted from risky behaviors such as substance use and violence, and from reporting a combination of both risky behaviors and mental health symptoms. Yet ...

A recent study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology suggests that children who engage in risky play tend to develop better risk management skills for real-world situations. The ...

Researchers explored the long-term effects of preschool expansion in Japan in the 1960s, revealing significant reductions in risky behaviors among teenagers. By analyzing regional differences in the ...

One of the hard parts about raising a teenager is that you used to be one. You probably remember the feelings, the changes and maybe making some not-so-great choices. Teenagers are faced with ...

To understand some of the difficulties inherent in promoting safer sexual practices (or even abstinence) among adolescents, it is helpful to become familiar with cognitive and interpersonal factors ...

Researchers have long known that religious teens are less likely to engage in risky behavior. My team’s research explains why. We surveyed multiple times the religious beliefs and risk behavior of ...