The Romance of Risk: Why Teenagers Do the Things They Do. - book reviews

Adolescence, Summer, 1998

PONTON, Lynn E. New York: BasicBooks, 1997. 310pp. $25.00 (h).

Today's teens have more opportunities for taking dangerous risks than ever before. However, Ponton refutes the traditional idea that risk-taking is primarily an angry power struggle with parents - so-called teenage rebellion - and redefines it as a potentially positive testing process whereby challenge and risk are the primary tools adolescents use to find out who they are and determine who they will become. This perspective is revealed in a series of tales about individual adolescents and their families. Among others, there is Jill, a 13-year-old thrill-seeking runaway; Hannah, a privileged daughter of suburbia who suffers from anorexia; and Joe, a high school senior with a serious drinking problem. Through these stories, the reader comes to understand Ponton's observation that teenagers must confront and experience challenge and risk along the path to self-discovery. For adolescents, the powerful allure of the adult world is equaled only by the fear of failing to find a place in it. Parents can ease that transition into adulthood, however, by promoting healthy risk-taking so that dangerous options will be avoided. In The Romance of Risk, parents will learn how they can begin to understand rather than fear adolescent risk-taking, and how to communicate with their children about it. Teenagers will always romanticize risk, but with the support and guidance of parents and other adults, odds are the risks they take will be the right ones.