Young men derive a whole range of positive emotions from risky behaviour, writes MICHAEL KELLY
THERE’S a particular stretch of road near our house that has a really severe bump on it. Every time I drive on that road, I cringe a little because it takes me back (way back) to a day when I was just 17 or maybe 18 years old and driving so fast on that road that the car briefly became airborne as I went over the bump.
I wasn’t your stereotypical Boy Racer or anything like that – in fact, the term probably hadn’t even been coined back then and, truth be known, I didn’t really care much for cars at all. But my parents had given me a loan of the car for the day and I was showing off to the two or three people I had in the car with me.
I cringe now because I know how dangerous and breathtakingly stupid it was – though I suppose I ought to be thankful that I didn’t crash the car and kill everyone in it.
It is strange indeed that when we look back at our callow youth from the lofty perch of wisdom afforded us by our 30s, 40s and 50s, we can’t help but wonder – what on earth were we thinking?
Whenever I hear discussions about risky behaviour among young men I always think back to that day in the car. There but for the grace of God go I.
We often hear it said that young men drive really fast (or take drugs, or drink too much, or smoke, or engage in risky sexual or antisocial behaviour) because they think that they are invincible. And that is no doubt part of it.
But when I think about why I was speeding in the car that day, I don’t think feelings of invincibility had much to do with it. Mainly I was enjoying the buzz of going fast. Of course I knew there was a risk of an accident – there was a chance that something bad could happen. But the buzz was guaranteed.
And perhaps that’s the key to gaining insight into risky behaviour among young men – they enjoy it. They enjoy driving too fast. They enjoy taking risks in sport that might lead to injury. They enjoy smoking and drinking. They enjoy sexual exploration. They derive pleasure from the proximity of danger (both from the law and potential injury or worse), and from the fact that the behaviour is in opposition to the established order.
And when we were their age, we enjoyed it too. We enjoyed all those things, not just despite of the risk, but because of the risks.
That is the challenge for public health professionals – how exactly do you encourage young men to leave risky behaviour behind, when they take so much pleasure from it?
The Department of Health and Children’s National Men’s Health Policy (2008-2013) finds considerable evidence of risk behaviour among young Irish men.
Men aged 18-29 are, for example, far more likely than women to drive under the influence of alcohol and to speed. Only 38 per cent of men aged 18 and over “always” adhere to speed limits while driving. More than half (55 per cent) of the 287 annual male deaths on Irish roads involve young men aged 15-34.
Young Irish men aged 18-29 years drink 17.9 litres of pure alcohol per annum (the European average is about seven litres).
Forty-six per cent of 19-35 year-old men smoke and men are three times more likely than women to use an illegal drug. According to the Men’s Health Policy, young men in modern society are caught in a bind – generally speaking their sense of responsibility is not as highly developed as it will ultimately become.
They have a low perception of risk and tend to underestimate just how susceptible to risk they are. They also tend to overestimate their own skills (particularly when it comes to driving).
“There is certainly a developmental issue there,” says Dr Aogan Mulcahy of UCD’s School of Sociology. “They engage in a behaviour which may be dangerous to themselves, to others and to society at large, but are often not able to judge what the consequences of their actions will be. There is often a level of pure egoism involved – they do it because it benefits them in some way.”
This poor judgment is exacerbated by the fact that society at large offers them increased opportunities to engage in risky behaviour (and arguably even promotes it). “There are new means of engaging in risk everywhere you look,” says Mulcahy. “Young men have greater access to disposable income through pocket money and part-time jobs.
“They have greater access to cars and to foreign travel. We see this rite of passage where they finish their Leaving Cert and go off on a foreign holiday where they can access drink and sex. The rush of living on the edge is undeniable, particularly when young people generally find routine abhorrent.”
Young men also have to grapple with some decidedly mixed messages about what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable risk behaviour. There is, according to Mulcahy, a general lack of consistency about our attitudes to risk in society.
"The idea that risk behaviour is only for aberrant individuals or bored teenagers should be knocked on the head," he says. "Look at a programme like Top Gearwhere three grown men drive cars around at high speed. Look at activities like bungee jumping or white-water rafting. Look at the stock brokers who bet money that they don't have. Risk is present all around us often disguised as respectable behaviour. All entrepreneurial behaviour is inherently risky."
In his book, Edgework: the sociology of risk-taking, Stephen Lyng puts risk-taking into context alongside dangerous and extreme sports where the "the threat of death or injury is ever present".
Lyng sees risk-taking as a means of “seizing control, a way of reacting against the unidentifiable forces that rob one of individual choice”. He points out that while the wealthy can engage in exotic and expensive risky pastimes, the less wealthy can not. Hayward (2004) talks about speeding, joyriding and other risky behaviours associated with youth as being about transcending powerlessness through “displays of risk, excitement, masculinity and even carnivalesque pleasure”.
A report to the Priorswood Task Force on Joyriding(Rush et al) found that the immediate pleasure that young men took from the activity was in stark contrast with the ongoing boredom that characterised their lives. In fact, while society rightly sees such an activity as incredibly dangerous and destructive, the report found that the young men involved derived a whole range of positive emotions from it – a sense of skill, achievement, status, even popularity.
Gender-specific factors also play a role. Risk-taking behaviours differ considerably between the sexes, with males displaying fewer positive health behaviours and more risk-taking behaviours than females. “Young men are actively encouraged to take risks, enjoy excitement and display their masculinity,” says Mulcahy.
“Very few parents will be happy with a young boy who likes to read a book – he will be told to get out there and play with his friends. We have school sports where men are asked to demonstrate their masculinity through ritualised contests.
“It’s about knowing the risks and facing them down and the men to be admired are those that step up to the plate.”
So why is it that we eventually leave these risky behaviours behind? “It’s the advent of responsibility,” says Mulcahy. “We start to take into account the needs and feelings of others. It is the arrival of marriage, parenthood or full-time employment. Men eventually realise they are no longer a single individual and that their behaviour has consequences for other people. This is why we see that the peak time for criminal behaviour is among teenagers.
“There are, of course, people who go on to make a ‘career’ from it, but most leave it behind as they get older because they realise it has consequences.”
The implications of all this for the health of young men is clearly considerable. But in the context of a society that actively promotes risk is some quarters while condemning it in others, how do you encourage young men to behave responsibly?
How can you support men in adopting healthier behaviours, when those behaviours are in effect an active expression of masculinity?
The standard public health messages which seek to inform people of risks are not as effective with young men, because many of them seek out these behaviours precisely because they are risky. Existing policies also tend to overlook gender as a key variable in risk behaviour.
The National Men’s Health Policy calls for a review of existing legislation to ensure that it is adequate to deter risk-taking behaviour among men. It also highlights the need for gendered health promotion interventions in third-level colleges to address sexual health and risk-taking behaviours among male students.
In 2004, Dáil na nÓg (the National Youth Parliament) highlighted that the lack of recreational facilities in Ireland denies young people the right to become involved in activities that interest them. Such facilities the parliament argues would promote healthy living and reduce risk behaviours.