Issues first surfaced in the late 1980s, when states were required to use federal subsidies to pay for all legal forms of child care. The passage of the 1996 federal welfare law brought wide consensus that success in moving large numbers of parents receiving cash assistance into the workforce will result in increased subsidies going to kith and kin caregivers. If risk seems as much a hallmark of adolescence as headphones and baggy jeans, it is. Research suggests that thrill-seeking behavior does a mountain climb during adolescence, then levels off in young adulthood and begins its descent in the later years. Much, though hardly all, of this adolescent risk-taking is both necessary and healthy.
Risk is to a developing self as protein is to muscles.
Kids can't separate from their parents, affiliate more firmly with their peers, flex their growing intellect, integrate new sexual and aggressive energies, or discover the colors of their true natures without it. In short, they can rarely forge an identity of their own without taking risks. The personal, family, and community traits that help kids avoid harmful risk are becoming increasingly clear. In addition to serving as director of Proud Poppas, he is involved with several civic programs in the city including several high school programs and serving on the Birmingham Urban League Board of Directors for youth initiatives. Last month, a settlement was reached requiring the tobacco industry to compensate states for expenses incurred from smoking-related illnesses.