How do social and environmental factors affect teens and young adults making healthy or unhealthy decisions?

Health Problems among Teens and Young Adults

The course textbook An Introduction to Community Health refers to teens and their risky behaviors. The number of single parent households with children under the age of eighteen continues to rise. Unemployment is higher for teens and young adults, especially for minority populations. Health behavior and lifestyle choices are tested during this timeframe, with tobacco use, underage drinking, abuse of prescription illegal drugs, and risky sexual behavior. Teen violence and suicide are also a cause of concern to families and the community.

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Based on your understanding of the topic, create a report in a Microsoft Word document answering the following questions:

· How do social and environmental factors affect teens and young adults making healthy or unhealthy decisions? How influential is the family environment?

· What motivates teens to form groups and how do negative behaviors increase when teens are involved in small or large gangs?

· What specific issues does the U.S. minority population face in terms of health issues, lack of healthcare, and risky behaviors?

· What specific type of community program would you develop if you were in charge of improving options for teens and young adults? What community members would you seek to speak with about your program proposal and how important is it to include influential community members who can help support legislation, space, or financial services to help a community program succeed?

· How will education reduce risk taking behaviors? What type of follow up and evaluation will you do to ensure a successful program?

Solution Preview

1) Social and environmental factors play a large role in teens and young adults’ decision making. Social factors such as entertainment, social media, friends and school are a large part of this. Lets take for example food. What we see on television commercials, billboard advertisements, social media posts, and what we see our friends eating and what is provided at school is a large part of what kids eat. The same goes for exercise habits. The family environment is very influential. Unfortunately in today’s society the family unit has been dissolved, and teens and young adults who are unconsciously seeking influence about healthy vs unhealthy decisions do not have the family unit to turn to. A family that is very involved in the health decisions, lets say diet, exercise and drug abstinence have a lower risk of childhood obesity and drug use (you’ll want to find a source for this but it should be very easy). The family needs to take …