The Behaviors that Decrease Motivation and Achievement in Youth
The Search Institute is a gold mine of knowledge for parents. This organization has so much research and advice for raising children, you could easily spend an entire afternoon and evening browsing their website. Correspondingly, one of their areas of research of particular interest is their breakdown of 24 youth risk behaviors.
Their research suggest that these 24 youth risk behaviors are the leading behaviors that contribute to decreased motivation and achievement. What’s more, according to the CDC many of these behaviors are also the leading causes of death and disability among youth. Therefore, parents must do whatever it takes to prevent their children from engaging in these 24 youth risk behaviors below.
The 24 youth risk behaviors
- Alcohol Use
- Binge drinking
- Marijuana Use
- Smokeless Tobacco Use
- Illegal drug use
- Driving while drinking
- Early sexual intercourse
- Vandalism
- Inhalants Use
- Smoking
- Shoplifting
- Using a weapon
- Eating disorder
- Skipping school
- Gambling
- Depression
- Getting into trouble with police
- Hitting another person
- Hurting another person
- Fighting in groups
- Carrying a weapon for protection
- Threatening to cause physical harm
- Attempted suicide
- Riding with an impaired driver
Obviously, the sooner you can begin protecting your child from these behaviors the better. Consequently, the Search Institute recommends parents start building a fortress around their children ASAP using their 40 developmental assets as a guide. In fact, their research shows that by increasing the developmental assets you can decrease the 24 youth risk behaviors.
With this in mind, I suggest all parent’s take a look at the 40 developmental assets and do a self-evaluation to see how your family, school, and community environments supports your child in each area.