Second, they often acted in groups. All people are more susceptible to take more risks in the presence of a group and adolescents are especially vulnerable to group pressures. There does not need to be overt statements of pressure, simply observing others succumb to temptation is enough to set new standards for action. Then, status was achieved through some of the acts which only reinforced kids for participating. Thus, it is easy to propose that factors from the adolescents' backgrounds and factors unique to their party experiences made importan contributions to unhealthy conduct.
Questions arise about the possibility of such negative situations occurring in other communities.
It is not clear if episodes are increasing in frequency in the last decade, but it can be stated that nearly every community has the potential for such problems to occur. There are several situations that create the potential. First, adolescents are involved in unsupervised activities and less contact with adults with greater and greater frequency. Children and adolescents are spending increasingly less time with adults. In our society, we have shifted from a situation in which the majority of teens had a parent at home during the day to one in which the majority has parents in the work force.