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Understanding Adolescent Health Behaviour

Smoking, drinking, unhealthy eating: how can we explain these actions in teenagers? Do teenagers stop to consider potential hazards or is their decision making frantic and impulsive, with little rational thought? In this intriguing book, Kanayo Umeh debunks conventional explanations of teenage behaviour (peer pressure, self-esteem issues, parent–child conflicts) and offers a fresh perspective based on the premise that teenagers, like adults, retain the power of choice. He shows that adolescents sometimes readily commit to a course of action despite being sceptical about its benefits, and reveals how decision strategies that appear ill-considered to adults are regarded as smart by adolescents, and with convincing justifications. Contrary to stereotypes, the teenager emerges as a curious individual: a multifaceted decision maker whose actions may not be quite as mindless as popular myth suggests.

Kanayo Umeh is a chartered psychologist and Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University.

Kanayo Umeh

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© Kanayo Umeh 2009

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2009

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication dataUmeh, Kanayo F., 1969–Understanding adolescent health behaviour : a decision making perspective / by Kanayo F. Umeh.p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-0-521-87526-41. Risk-taking (Psychology) in adolescence. 2. Behavior disorders in adolescence. I. Title.RJ506.R57U64 2009618.92′89–dc222008049140

ISBN 978-0-521-87526-4 hardback
ISBN 978-0-521-69802-3 paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

To my wife and son, Oby and Oli

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