Risky behaviour undertaken by young people with disabilities

Abstract

Human life is abundant in events which have impact on people’s life paths, which in turn influence their behavioural patterns shaping them to deviate from the accepted standards. Certainly, the experience of disability is an event which superimposes numerous and wide-ranging biopsychosocial consequences for those affected by it. It is a difficult situation that limits one’s potential to satisfy one’s needs and to meet the expectations of the public. Young people, who desperately look for ways to cope with such a situation, often resort to risky behaviours (e.g.
smoking, drinking alcohol, early sexual initiation, aggression) and frequently find themselves in dire straits. However, experience demonstrates that such measures not only fail to solve problems, but intensify them, often leading to social maladjustment, which then may end up in social exclusion. Therefore, risky behaviour, particularly in adolescents with disabilities, appears to be a serious problem that
requires diagnosis and intervention. The aim of this discussion is to demonstrate risky behaviour in young people with disabilities and to look at it through the prism of their conditioning rooted in their attempts (usually unsuccessful) to cope with a difficult life situation maimed by disability.