Marian Catholic Mothers Club Hosts Notre Dame Professor

Daniel Lapsley, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Notre Dame spoke recently at Marian Catholic High School to parents and faculty about adolescent risk-taking behavior.

Dispelling the belief that teenagers are worse at perceiving risks than adults, Lapsley gave examples of how teens weigh risks and consequences.

“Educating adolescents to make ‘better’ decisions is not likely to reduce risky behavior,” he stated. “In the search for other explanations for why adolescents, as a group, make riskier decisions, it’s because they feel invulnerable, that they cannot be harmed.”

Lapsley believes that teenagers are not weighing the risks of their behaviors, but trying to fill a role within their peer group, bonding with their peers to solidify their position in that group.

“Most adolescent risk taking takes place in contexts where the teens are unsupervised by adults,” he said. “Compounding the behavior is an over-exposure to peer pressure because teens spend a significant amount of time with their peer groups.”

“As parents and educators, our goal is to limit the opportunities that put adolescents in risky situations by encouraging activities where adults are present,” he continued. “Strong connections to institutions (schools, churches) provide a basis for less risky behaviors.”

According to Lapsley’s research, an authoritative structure that is conducive to good development is one where the parent or teacher makes demands on the student, setting rules and boundaries, but which incur consequences when violated. This structure operates best in the context of warmth, open communication and flexibility.

For Marian Catholic educators, who average twenty-one years of teaching experience, the presentation helped reinforce the theory that a strong connection to the core values of Catholic education, and the strong sense of community on campus, avert a significant amount of risky behaviors among students.

“Catholic schools resonate strongly for student achievement in spite of risky behaviors and troubled backgrounds, in large part because the school community holds people accountable and calls forth the best from each individual,” said Thomas Golden, of the Marian Catholic English Department.

Golden continued, “Strong classroom teachers provide the structure and discipline teenagers need. The presentation itself was an affirmation of multiple teacher workshops I've seen over the past 36 years,” he said. “The reason so many Marian teachers have the track record they do at Marian is the core values that permeate the school community. Dr. Lapsley really spoke of teaching as an apostolate, and we proclaim that every day here in ‘teaching scholars with a soul.’"

-Submitted by Gail Young