Adolescence

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During adolescence, individuals are willing to try new things and take more risks. Hall stated that “a period of semi criminality is normal for all healthy boys”[7]. I believe that this is a stereotype as there is a great number of male adolescents that do not have any connections with crime. I agree with the fact that boys are more likely to experience crime whereas girls are normally not very common in this context. Another risk adolescents face is sexual intercourse. According to a survey by CDC in 2013, 34% of adolescents had sex in the last 3 months and 41% of these have not used protection[8]. This demonstrates that teenagers are not considering the consequences of what they do. Unprotected sex can cause STDs and early pregnancy. I think that adolescents should take risks to try to get out of their comfort zone and try new things but they should also think carefully about the possible consequences and if the risk is worth taking.

Adolescence is possibly the time in your life where you have an increased amount of conflicts with your parents for more independence, have mood disruption and experience anxiety and depression or happiness and it is most likely the period of time where you take major risks as G Stanley Hall thought. However, in Arnett’s view Hall did not only present adolescence as storm and stress, he also described it as “the best decade of life”[9]. This shows that even if during adolescence teenagers have certain types of behaviour, it doesn’t mean that it cannot be a great period in their life. It can lead to both positive and negative events but you can still enjoy it in a certain way.

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