Why are youths embracing fewer risks?

This marks the inaugural segment in Tightrope, a series delving into how risk influences our choices.

---

Young individuals in the present day are retreating from risky actions like alcohol consumption, sexual activity, and even driving at rates lower than those of earlier generations. Although it might be easy to attribute these shifts to parenting styles, psychologist Richard Weissbourd asserts that the situation is more intricate.

The head of the Making Caring Common Project at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education highlights a survey his team executed as part of a 2023 report concerning mental health issues among 18- to 25-year-olds. It revealed that young adults’ primary concerns included their financial future, academic pressures, and uncertainty about their life paths. Ranking fourth — preceding job, family, and social worries — was the feeling that the world was disintegrating around them.

“Historically, there was a concern that especially in wealthy communities, youth weren’t encountering enough risk, and that one might need to facilitate risk for them,” Weissbourd observed. “Now the narrative has shifted significantly. We inhabit a frightening world where chaos is unfolding. We no longer need to curate risk. Instead, our aim should be to assist youth in understanding, interpreting, making sense of, and finding stability during this exceptionally intimidating period.”

Yet, the evolving connection to risk in youth is a genuine phenomenon, Weissbourd noted, partly owing to parents’ heightened focus on shielding their offspring from all forms of adversity.

“This reflects a broader trend, where parents, in many instances, overly structure their lives around their children, prioritizing their emotional states, and micromanaging their daily moods,” he stated. “This approach is detrimental for young people. They fail to cultivate the coping mechanisms we wish for them to acquire.”

However, Weissbourd added, it is commendable that young individuals are consuming less alcohol and narcotics. “This likely indicates positive parenting practices and beneficial cultural developments as well.”

Recognizing that some students arrive at college with less independence experience than prior generations, some universities are urging their students to venture beyond their dormitories and connect with each other and the wider community.

“Many student affairs offices at colleges are conveying that message: This is truly an opportune time to create some distance from your parents and to lead your own life, which includes embracing some risks.”

Weissbourd theorizes that for numerous young adults, the journey toward a secure life feels increasingly uncertain.

“A portion of what you’re noticing in this risk-averse behavior is that I can’t disembark this train; I must persist at this rapid pace — predominantly in middle- and upper-class circles — if I hope to gain admission to a reputable college, if I wish to secure a quality job,” he explained. “I need to remain on this train, accelerating relentlessly, and I cannot allow anything to derail my progress.”

It can feel significantly more daunting to take a gap year when the stakes of making an erroneous decision seem so dire.

“In our surveys of young adults, they express a strong sense that things are crumbling, indicating that the adults seem disconnected from reality. They place greater trust in their peers to make positive changes than in older generations.”

The most effective way to assist young people feeling paralyzed by the world’s instability is to converse with them about it, Weissbourd advised. What specific ways do they perceive that adults have failed, and how can they, as individuals, enact improvement?

Teens and young adults may be aware of the risks they can manage, but a continuous stream of alarming news can skew anyone’s perception of safety, irrespective of age. Weissbourd expressed optimism regarding the youth’s proficiency in practices like meditation, positive self-talk, and other mental health resources.

“To the extent that young people can regulate their anxiety, I believe they are better equipped to make sound judgments about what constitutes excessive risk versus acceptable risk.”