High-risk sexual behaviors.

Adolescence is a time of life characterized by danger because of the many changes that occur, the many ties that are severed: ties to childhood, ties to the child’s body as it begins to take on an adult appearance, ties to a once-familiar body image and psyche as hormones complete the transformation to adulthood, ties to an unconscious that is struggling to restructure itself anew. The creation of the romantic couple is a danger inherent in any human society. This text was written from the professional practices of each author in a multidisciplinary approach combining the approaches of public health, risk reduction, and sexual, psychological and clinical care of adolescents. How to help anticipate the dangers is to use preventive insurance verifying that security is guaranteed before committing. Risk-taking is accepting all the challenges that boost the self with oneself and with others. The risk is therefore also the commitment in love. It is still the risk to speak, to feel, to express feelings, choices, and refusal of unwanted sex. The ability of adolescents to play and defeat the risk by learning the ethical value not only to protect themselves from contracting AIDS, but also to protect others is part of the pedagogy of risk. This pedagogy of risk, as we have seen, includes three areas: information, care and initiation into love. Adolescents must be supported in their emergence by responsible people to protect them from the dangers ahead. The support is not only to prevent them from engaging in risky behavior, but to help them better manage their anxieties and support the fragility of their families in a network approach. Not knowing how to confront the risk stifles the chance of allowing the child to grow up to be independent and helps reassure parents who may resent being removed from the empowerment of their children.