Encouraging positive risk taking for teens

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Encouraging positive risk taking for teens

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Parents always wonder how can they help their teenager channel their energy into something positive and not do risky behavior like promiscuity or drug use. Researchers at the University of Texas actually found that there is a part of the teenage brain that craves adrenalin. It craves risk, and that actually explains why a lot of teenagers want to try drugs or try risky behavior. So what parents can do to encourage positive risk taking is any activity that gets adrenalin pumping that's good for them: running for student council, extreme sports, taking them to theme parks with roller coasters – that's a great way of taking this energy and putting it into something that's positive, so it scratches that risk itch.
TEEN, Parenting Teens

View Vanessa Van Petten's video on Encouraging positive risk taking for teens...

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Vanessa Van Petten

Youtholgist

Vanessa Van Petten is one of the nation's youngest experts, or 'youthologists' on parenting and adolescents.  She wrote her first parenting book, You're Grounded, from the teen's perspective when she was just 17. After winning the Mom’s Choice Award in 2009, she launched her popular parenting website, RadicalParenting.com, which she now writes with 120 other teenagers to answer questions from parents on everything from communication issues to cyberbullying. Vanessa's unique approach has been featured by CNN, CBS Miami, Fox New York, Wall Street Journal, Teen Vogue, and many more.  She was also on the Real Housewives of Orange County helping the housewives with troubled teens. Her latest book, Do I Get My Allowance Before or After I'm Grounded?  won the Moms Choice Award in 2012. 

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Transcription: 
Parents always wonder how can they help their teenager channel their energy into something positive and not do risky behavior like promiscuity or drug use. Researchers at the University of Texas actually found that there is a part of the teenage brain that craves adrenalin. It craves risk, and that actually explains why a lot of teenagers want to try drugs or try risky behavior. So what parents can do to encourage positive risk taking is any activity that gets adrenalin pumping that's good for them: running for student council, extreme sports, taking them to theme parks with roller coasters – that's a great way of taking this energy and putting it into something that's positive, so it scratches that risk itch.
TEEN, Parenting Teens