By the teen years ... whether we like it or not, ...our adolescents, are going to do things on their own [and] ... there it’s a question of modeling safe behavior.
Can parents be safe on their own? There’s very strong evidence that [if] teenagers ... don’t wear seat belts, their parents don’t either. Not surprising; if parents model the safe behavior, the teenagers learn it.
And I think also kind of ingraining a sense of risk taking ... in a safe way. A lot of teenagers love to ride a roller coaster ,,, , And we know that rollercoasters are ver safe pieces of equipment. Where you want the teen to recognize danger is when they aren’t riding in the roller coaster, but say they’re riding a skateboard ... .
David C. Schwebel
University of Alabama at BIrmingham
Associate Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Psychology
Listen to the full interview below, and feel free to share your comments.
