Adolescents and Risky Behavior

This week, one of the topics that caught my attention was adolescents and risky behavior from Chapter 8, in our text.  The authors were saying that adolescents often overestimate the harm of risky behavior in general, but they personally don't see themselves at risk and they place greater value on the rewards associated with the risk and not the consequences that would or could occur because of it.  It was fascinating to me because I thought this sort of thing just went " hand-in-hand" with being a certain age.  I didn't know it was related to the fact that these behaviors reflected the maturity of the brain regions associated with pleasure seeking compared to the regions that are actually able to control behavior.  It made me wonder, (and I wish the authors would have gone into a little more detail about the subject), why some adolescents take risks and some don't?  I've known some that seem to be more rational and mature than some of the adults I've known or met.  Is it because their regions of the brain that control behavior have developed early or is there some other factor involved?  I do know I'll be more understanding of teens and their risky behavior after reading about this subject, because it is  part of the growth process and not just due to stupidity or being rebellious.

The timing of reading about this topic coincided with a sad event that happened a week ago, around 2:30 am on May 6th.  A 21- year old guy that my daughter knows was killed in a car accident  because he was driving 60 mph on Lakeway Drive and lost control and hit a telephone pole.  This is a perfect example of risky behavior and it ties in to what the text was saying about  the pattern of adolescent deaths.  This boy happened to be Latino American and apparently most deaths at this age are due to motor vehicles, as opposed to guns, which is the main cause of death of African American boys.  When I told my husband about the accident (before I read this chapter), his response was basically "how stupid to be driving that fast down Lakeway and what was he thinking?"  After being enlightened on this subject, I can now look at the situation in different terms.  This accident was a total tragedy, no alcohol or drugs were found in his system and my daughter said he was a really great person.  Apparently, he had been to Peru, and did some teaching over there  (I'm not sure what subject - but I think it was English).  He had his whole life ahead of him, but because of his "risky behavior" he lost it and his family members and friends lost him.

I think it would be great if more research and studies could be done to see if there was some way to speed up the maturation process of the brain regions that control behavior control;  and if  this could be achieved think of how many accidents and deaths could be prevented in our society.