Breaking rules and taking risks with casual sex and binge drinking are inevitable for teenagers, according to a new study
Breaking rules and taking risks with casual sex and binge drinking are inevitable for teenagers, according to a new study.
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"Heightened risk-taking during adolescence is likely to be normal, biologically-driven, and, to some extent, inevitable. There is probably very little we can or ought to do," the Daily Mail quoted Laurence Steinberg, of Temple University in Philadelphia, as saying.
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"This is a development shift that likely has evolutionary origins," he added.
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In the study, Steinberg found that though more than 90 per cent of all high school students [in the U.S.] have had sex, drug and driver education in their schools, large proportions of them still have unsafe sex, binge drink, smoke and drive recklessly.
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Another study he did with psychologist Jason Chein, which measured brain activity in adolescents and adults, showed teenagers are more likely to take risks in groups.
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As part of an experimental game, adolescents playing alone behaved in a similar way to adults, but the teenagers took more risks when they knew friends were watching.
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Professor Steinberg said teenagers find socialising with their peers rewarding, so it makes their brains more susceptible to receiving rewards.
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