What Puts Teens at Risk? And What Can Be Done About It?

The Problem

As a teenager you know that something is not right with the world, and you are always certain that you know exactly what it is, even if it is something different from one day to the next. As an adult, you may still know that something is not right, but you might be a little less certain of what it is, except that it has something to do with those teenagers. I am joking, of course. Well, maybe a little.

The difficulty is that some problems, like those of teenagers in trouble, are so hard to define. Teenagers today are at risk from any number of potentially life-wrecking alternatives. Most of them successfully avoid the worst pitfalls, but why and how? What causes violent, criminal, and other severely antisocial behaviors in teens? Are they just emulating their parents? Are they driven to despair by broken homes and absent fathers? More importantly, what can we do to minimize the risks for our young people?

I wish I could say that the answers are obvious. Unfortunately, the problem is clouded by the lenses that we all build up over our own eyes throughout our lives. It is not enough to say what worked or did not work for you or me. We have to look beyond our own family cultures, religions, and circumstances to identify whatever common factors there might be among troubled teens. Let us begin by defining the scope of the problem.

The Scope

Every place has its unique combination of culture, religion, politics, language, etc, making it unreasonable to attempt a global answer for these questions. Our first step should be to limit ourselves to a geographic and cultural boundary which we can reasonably address. I have decided to limit my analysis to the United States. I know its culture better than I know any other, having lived in it for better than thirty-five years to date.

There are a few common elements to the stories of most troubled youth across the entire country. They experience roughly the same entertainment in the forms of movies, television, radio, music, sports, and literature. With some qualifications, they live within the same pop culture, which is informed by those same entertainment media. A great many of them grew up in relative poverty, and at least as many of them grew up in broken homes, with one or both parents absent.

Entertainment

Of those four elements, entertainment is probably the most widely mutual. Every teenager does not have a Showtime subscription or an Xbox, but most of them have a friend who frequently shares. They all occasionally have an opportunity to spend time at a movie theatre or video arcade. Most know the same bands and music. Most know who played in the last Super Bowl or NBA finals.

The link between violent video games and movies and juvenile crime has been in the news frequently in recent years. I do not think anyone would honestly argue that playing video games forced anyone to commit murder or any other crime, but it may not be such a stretch to say that those games might influence some people in that direction.¹

On the other hand, violent crime seems to be generally on the decline, while virtual violence is on the rise. There is certainly a link between violent entertainment, including music and literature, and some juvenile crime, but a broadly applicable connection has not been established.² We cannot categorically say that virtual violence causes real violence, but I think we can safely say that it does not alleviate it either.

Poverty

Not as ubiquitous and certainly less fun, poverty-technically economic inequality-is another common denominator among troubled youths. Crime and poverty seem to go hand in hand. Wherever there is a concentrated economic disparity, there seems to be more crime, more gangs, more drugs, and more social problems of almost every sort. Once again, a firm causal connection cannot be established. Most likely crime, poverty, drug abuse, sexual promiscuity, divorce, and a whole host of other social ills probably feed off of each other.³ They all contribute to a general feeling of hopelessness that keeps people from climbing out of the mess, and the whole cycle starts over again.⁴

Divorce and Broken Families

The fourth common element is a broken home, and its tragic nature is such that I have to resist giving it more weight than it may be due. The causes of single-parent homes range from unwed mothers to divorce, but the latter is be more closely associated with teenage behavioral issues.⁵

Divorce, poverty, and antisocial behavior among teens are inextricably linked. Seventy-five percent of female-headed, single-family homes live below the poverty level, and eighty-five percent of children with behavioral disorders⁶ and ninety percent of all homeless and runaway children⁷ also come from fatherless homes. Similar statistics can be found to correlate almost every social problem imaginable with the absence of fathers. Even those researchers and pundits who do not believe that absent fathers are a significant risk to teenagers admit that fathers are necessary for proper socialization and discipline of children.⁸

The Solution

Any solution to the problem of teenagers at risk must address these three issues: the negative influences of pop culture, poverty, and broken families. They must be addressed on two levels: correction and prevention. We must restore those who have already been harmed, and we must prevent the same thing from happening to more children.

The first step in any effective program is to start at the beginning, in infancy. The primary influences over every child are his own parents, and then his extended family. Parents must take responsibility for their own children. This means teaching strict morals from the earliest age, enforcing them consistently.⁹ Since children learn standards of behavior by example more than by any other means, parents must enforce those same strict morals for themselves.

Extended families need to be encouraged to stay close together to provide the support networks that parents have depended on for millennia. Professional childcare services should be used as a last resort. As much as possible, moral standards should be consistent across generations. Grandparents and other relatives can be depended on to maintain that consistency. When family is not available, people in the community, such as members of the same church, can perform much the same function.

Churches and other community organizations need to be willing to help families stay together, and to provide refuge for those already in trouble. When possible and desirable, they should help restore broken families and alienated youth, teaching them how to resolve problems and have healthier relationships.

At all levels fathers should be encouraged to spend time teaching and showing real interest in their children. Trends over the last forty years indicate that policies favoring no-fault divorce, sole custody, and default maternal custody increase divorce rates and the alienation of fathers from their children.¹⁰ Family and divorce courts must be restructured to encourage restoration and development rather than easy divorce. We must eliminate cookie-cutter divorce settlements-especially custody and child support rules-as unfair to everyone involved.

As children grow, it is important to control negative influences. Parents should pay close attention to their children's games, music, and video. Entertainers who promote unacceptable behavior need to be consistently shunned. Since the entertainment industry is driven by profit, the children of good parents will be sheltered from the worst entertainment, and the worst will get better. Media sources should offer parents better tools, such as more specific and detailed ratings without the often tempting wording of today's film ratings.¹¹ Parental controls must be honored by schools, recreation centers, and other youth-oriented establishments.

Community organizations, services, and businesses can also help children develop good habits and relationship skills by providing mentors in many areas. Extra curricular teachers, such as martial arts, dancing, religious, or music instructors, should work with parents to reinforce moral standards. They could provide teens with opportunities to expand their skills and horizons through mentorships, teaching more than just karate or piano, but also life skills. They could provide surrogate fathers and mothers to teens who have already lost one or both parents for whatever reason. They could provide hope and direction to teens who have never known those things.¹²

If minimum wages were relaxed for this purpose, local business could offer apprenticeships and internships as opportunities and incentives to learning. Teens who might otherwise simply drop out might find ongoing rewards for staying in school, while they learn real-life skills and purpose that will serve them for the rest of their lives. At the same time, they can help bring extra income to their families and perhaps remove their younger siblings that much further from poverty.

All of these solutions have two things in common: They are both local and national. They are all local, community-focused solutions that can adapt to the changing circumstances across neighborhoods, cities, states, and cultures. They are national in that they are present in every community in this country. Almost everyone is born into a family. Everyone exists in a community. Everyone has a church or a school or a business or a teacher nearby.

Teenagers are faced with serious trials no matter where they are, no matter how much money they have, and no matter who their parents are. Some of them just have better support networks. If communities work together to provide healthy options for their own members, those teenagers who do not have two parents or solid boundaries or money will have a better chance of beating the odds. They will have better and more numerous options. Most importantly, they will have hope for their future.

¹ Rebecca Hagelin, "Video Game Violence & Our Sons," WorldNetDaily, March 28, 2006. Last accessed on 3/28/06 at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49470. Also see Mona Charen, "Media Violence Puts Teens at Risk," Teens at Risk: Opposing Viewpoints, by Laura K. Egendorf, Editor. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, Inc. 1999, pp 29-32.
² Benjamin Radford, "Reality Check on Video Game Violence," Skeptical Inquirer, December 04, 2005. Last accessed on 3/28/06 at http://www.livescience.com/technology/051204_video_violence.html. Also see Mike Males, "Media Violence Does Not Put Teens at Risk," Teens at Risk: Opposing Viewpoints, by Laura K. Egendorf, Editor. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, Inc. 1999, pp 33-37.
³ Dr. Thomas O'Connor, "Poverty, Inequality, and Crime," Department of Justice Studies & Applied Criminology, North Carolina Wesleyan College. Last accessed on 3/29/06 at http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/301/301lect07.htm.
⁴ An anonymous drug/alcohol counselor and psychiatric worker in a teen hospital, known by the handle red_red_read.
⁵Richard Kuhn and Dr. John Guidubaldi, "Child Custody Policies and Divorce Rates in the US," Children's Rights Council, 1997. Last accessed on 3/28/06 at http://www.deltabravo.net/custody/divrates.php.
⁶ Gene Stephens, "A Variety of Factors Put Teens at Risk," Teens at Risk: Opposing Viewpoints, by Laura K. Egendorf, Editor. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, Inc. 1999, pg 20.
⁷ U.S. D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census, as reported by Getting Men Involved: The Newsletter of the Bay Area Male Involvement Network, Spring 1997, and fathermag.com. Last accessed on 3/28/06 at http://www.fathermag.com/news/2778-stats.shtml.
⁸ Stephanie Coontz, "The Absence of Fathers Does Not Put Teens at Significant Risk," Teens at Risk: Opposing Viewpoints, by Laura K. Egendorf, Editor. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, Inc. 1999, pg 42.
⁹ Ray Harrison, pastor and retired high school teacher. Personal correspondence, March 17, 2006.
¹⁰ Kuhn and Guidubaldi, "Child Custody Policies"
¹¹ I have seen films that were "Rated R for intense martial arts action."
¹² Anonymous music academy owner. Personal correspondence, March 18, 2006.