1. Grade 8 | Unit 8.1 | Page 14
Unit 8.1
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Risky circumstances in the community:
• How do you think availability of drugs will increase the likelihood of your
using them?
• If there are few police around to arrest drunken drivers, do you think it is
more likely that people will drive when drunk?
• How well do you know all the people who live in your street? Have they
lived there for long?
• Why do you think that there are more murders and crime in the poor parts
of our cities than in the richer parts?
1. Availability of drugs, drinking and gambling opportunities
2. Social habits that are tolerant of high-risk behaviour and laws that allow abuse
3. Mobility of transition of community residents
4. Very poor communities.
Risky circumstances in the family:
• If a young person's parents both had an alcohol problem, how likely do
you think it is that the young person will start drinking a lot too?
• Do your parents always know where you are when you go out at night?
Do you think their wanting to know your whereabouts is a good thing or not?
• What do you think a person who has ongoing serious disagreement with
his or her parents likely to do after a while?
5. Family members with addiction problems
6. Little supervision or monitoring by parents
7. Serious conflict within the family
8. Parents who excuse their children's bad behaviour
Risky personal characteristics and risky circumstances in the
peer group:
• How impulsive or rebellious do you think you are?
• Who, for example, do you think is more likely to start using “tik”: (a) a
person who does well at school and at sports, or (b) a person who
repeatedly fails at school and isn't involved in any extra-curricular school
activities?

2. Grade 8 | Unit 8.1 | Page 15
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• Have you ever felt under pressure to join your friends into doing something
that made you uncomfortable or scared?
9. Impulsive, rebellious, hyper-active personality
10. Poor school performance.
11. Lack of commitment to school
12. Friends involved with problem behaviour
13. Biochemical factors
• Can you think of a person who has done well in life, despite coming from
a poor community and difficult family background?
Nelson Mandela grew up in a poor village in the Transkei, Oprah Winfrey
(the US TV host), Arnold Schwarzenegger (the RoboCop movie star and
governor of California), and JK Rowling (the author of the Harry Potter books)
all had to deal with difficult circumstances in their youth.
So, being at risk doesn't mean that you will develop a problem or that you
won't succeed in later life: it just means that you need to be aware of your
personal risks.