Encouraging adolescents to incorporate healthy behaviors can be somewhat tricky considering their fluctuating, independent, and sometimes rebellious attitudes. Plus, their behaviors are highly driven by their peers (Hanson, Venturelli, & Fleckenstein, 2009). Based on this, it seems like one idea would be to use slightly older, healthy peers to communicate to and influence the younger set of adolescents. Health educators could plan health behavior programs for the school setting, music concerts, malls, and basically wherever youth hang out. Plus, using current electronic devices, like the cell phone, to post messages and/or websites from various peer celebrities, who have a message of healthy behavior, could also work. The key is to use slightly older adolescents who look like them, but their message is one of healthy behaviors.
Parents can work undercover and expose the child to various activities that involve people of all ages and health conditions. This will open their eyes to more than just their peer set. Also, I am not sure if the “yardstick” demonstration would work with adolescents, but I once was shown a yardstick and it represented a life of zero to eighty years. I then was to estimate where I was on that stick in years. It puts in perspective quickly how much life is left if I live to 80! Let alone to have a healthy one!
References
Hanson, G. R., Venturelli, P. J. , & Fleckenstein, A. E. (2009). Drugs and society. Sudbury,
Massachusetts: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
No comments:
Post a Comment