Family Communication and Adolescent Risk Taking Behavior

This paper highlights the role of family communication in adolescent risk-taking. Family communication is defined as the act of making information, ideas, thoughts and feelings known among members of a family unit. Family communication can range from poor to very effective. How family members communicate their thoughts and feelings, particularly at times when they are attempting to resolve a stressful problem or assist one another in achieving personal goals, is important in adolescents' ability to cope with stressful situations and their likelihood of involvement in health behaviours and risk taking. Parent-child communication is an effective way of reducing unhealthy behaviors in adolescents. Children who do not receive warmth or care from their parents and who have disturbed communication patterns are more likely to have lower self-esteem, academic problems, and emotional troubles. They are also more likely to indulge in various kinds of health risk behaviors for example, drug use, eating disorders and participation in risky sexual behaviors. Thus, family communication is viewed as a strong predictor of adolescents' involvement in health risk behaviours.