Nowadays the problem of the development of teenagers is very important since often they face a number of problems which may have to negative consequences that it is even possible to speak about personality disorders of adolescents. On the other hand, they also face serious problems with socialization. In such a situation, it is worthy to analyze the research held by Ponton L.E. concerning behavior problems in teenagers and their effects on personality and social surrounding of teenagers.
First of all, it should be said that the author insists on the idea that teenagers and risk are synonymous notions. She estimates that risk is a natural part of life of any teenager and willing or not they have to pass through it. Moreover, L.E. Ponton indicates that nowadays teenagers have much more opportunities of taking risk than ever before. It is explained by the impact of the changes that take place in the contemporary society and it sounds quite logical and persuading. Human technologies have made such a significant progress and modern life is full of different sophisticated machines, the rhythm of the life is so rapid that the lack of knowledge or attention may lead to tragic results.
Naturally, it is teens who suffer the most since, on one hand, they want to be independent from their parents and other adult people they want other people treat them as grown ups, on the other hand, they are still children and need parents support and guidance in many questions. Unfortunately, they, as well as many of their parents, do not realize the latter fact. As the result teenagers, being left on their own, got some problems, like drug or alcoholic addiction, run away from home as it was in the case of a 13 year old Jill, who was simply thrill-seeking.
At the same time the author attempts to explain the trend of teenagers to risk taking not only social relations with their peers and people of outer circle but basically by relations with their parents within a family.
It should be pointed out that, unlike many other specialists working in the same field as L.E. Ponton does, she has a different view on risk taking. She rejects a traditional idea that risk taking is primarily an angry power struggle with parents, i.e. a so-called teenage rebellion against their parents’ power. So, L.E. Ponton defines risk taking as “a potentially positive testing process” (Ponton 1997:134) whereby challenge and risk are the primary tools the teenagers use in order to find out who they are and to determine who they will become.
Furthermore, the author of “The Romance of Risk: Why Teenagers Do the Things They Do” researches teenagers representing different social classes and environments. Among the cases she analyzes in her work it is possible to find the case of Jill that have already been mentioned, Hannah, who is a privileged daughter of suburbia who suffer from anorexia, or Joe, who is a high school student with a serious drinking problems. Such approach to the research obviously provides the author with an essential variety of data that provides quite an objective view on problems teenagers face in their life.
On analyzing these cases, a reader comes to realize that Ponton’s basic idea that “must confront and experience challenge and risk along the pass of self-discovery”. Consequently, judging from this statement it is possible to conclude that risk and challenge are really essential parts of the life of a teenager since they help him/her to understand her own nature, or self and probably in such a way they help find his/her own place in life and society.
It is particularly important for teenagers because according to the author for teenagers, the powerful allure of the adult world is equaled only by the fear of failing to find a place in it. It means that teenagers through risk taking and challenges get accustomed to the adult way of life and it helps them not to be lost in this newly discovered world.
It is obvious that a child transformation during the adolescence is extremely difficult and full of different problems but L.E. Ponton underlines that a child’s transformation into an adult may be eased if the help of parents is wisely suggested and used. Actually, she suggests a bit unusual and to a certain extent risky strategy of relations between parents and their adolescent children. She agrees that parents can ease the transition of teenagers into adulthood by promoting “healthy risk-taking” that is a kind of risk taking which presuppose that dangerous options would be avoided.
In fact this idea is quite arguable point because it is extremely hard, if possible at all, to fulfill. At least it presuppose a high level of parents education and knowledge about children and teens psychology along with a good knowledge of their own children that may be a problem in the modern world while the author estimates that it is necessary to educate parents and persuade them that such a risk taking should not be avoided or ignored but on the contrary widely discussed, especially with teenagers. So, one of the primary task of parents is to stop fear risk taking and start to understand its nature and lead their children through its windy path.
Thus, L.E. Ponton believes that in such a way teenagers transformation into adults would be safer and the risk taking would be romanticized, naturally on the condition of their parents guidance and support, as well as other adults who they communicate with. According to the author all this will lead to right risks teenagers face in their life.

Bibliography:

1. Maslow, A. H. Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper and Row, 1970.
2. Hall, C.S., Gardner, L. Introduction to the theories of personality. Toronto: John Wiley & Sons, 1985.
3. Krebs, D., Blackman, R. Psychology: A first encounter. Toronto: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988.
4. Maddi, S.R. Personality theories: A comparative analysis (6th ed.). Toronto: Brooks/Cole Publishing Co., 1996.
5. Ponton, L.E. The Romance of Risk: Why Teenagers Do the Things They Do. New York: Basic Books, 1997.
6. Ponton, L.E. Handbook of Adolescent Health Risk Behavior. New York: Plenum Press, 1996.
7. Rogers, C.R. A theory of therapy, personality and interpersonal relationships, as developed in the client-centered framework, New York: Random House, 1989.代写留学生论文，代写留学生课程作业，留学生论文代写荷兰代写留学生作业，代写英语论文，代写英国论文，代写英语硕士论文，代写essay，代写assignment，代写paper，代写英语毕业论文 客服电话：(0)133-2170-0683（全天） QQ在线客服：826949555 在线MSN：HRlunwen@hotmail.com 业务邮箱：826949555@qq.com