Roaming teens
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From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
Roaming groups of teens in bad neighborhoods - now, that can mean trouble. But a study finds that roaming groups of teens in good neighborhoods also could mean trouble.
Christopher Browning of Ohio State University examined data on 80 Chicago neighborhoods. He found neighborhoods where people trust each other and help to keep each other's kids in line are safer. But he says parents in those neighborhoods were more likely to let teens out unsupervised:
"Parents need to keep in mind that violence - other kinds of risk behaviors - can occur even in those communities when kids are spending too much time hanging out." (9 seconds)
He concedes it's not easy to know how much time unsupervised is too much.
The study in the journal Criminology was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Learn more at hhs.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.