Decision-making is an intricate aspect, especially among students from diverse cultures who are also developing emotionally and physically. According to standard 1.6G, there are individual disparities in development, physical appearance, and gender roles. Additionally, development is influenced by social factors such as culture. As children grow up and are socialized within their families and the community, their behavioral traits change, and their world views are either positively or negatively influenced. The environment they grow in also influences their growth and development. As they learn to make decisions, all the factors that influence their development play a role in their decision-making undertakings. Most importantly, as they become teenagers, they increasingly become aware of themselves, wish to be independent in decision-making, and take their relationships to other levels. Emotional and social influences make it difficult to ensure such individuals make appropriate decisions.
The connection between practicing health-enhancing behavior and alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs is the institution of boundaries between acceptable behavior and unacceptable traits. Based on standard 7.1G, the competence that is to be developed among grade five students is engaging in behavior that promotes healthy growth and development. Tobacco, alcohol, and other hard drugs negatively influence growth by negatively impacting one's mental wellbeing. In most cases, substance abuse leads to other associated health issues such as anxiety and, in some cases, depression. For young people to understand the differences, they must learn what healthy living is, what substance use and eventual addiction are, and what could influence one to engage in unhealthy behavior.
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Decision-making, goal setting, and accessing valid information cannot be entirely separated from practicing health-enhancing behavior, tobacco, alcohol, and drugs. For example, choosing to live healthy involves decision-making, but this cannot be achieved without having the correct information on healthy living (Alters et al., 2005). Additionally, it cannot be separated from goal setting because people deliberately or unconsciously put in place objectives to be achieved. Sometimes, people might carefully consider what they wish to achieve about their health and speak to a friend or a professional about it without penning down the goals.
One of the essential elements to prioritize when helping children make good decisions about their health, whether they have or do not have good role models, is awareness. There is a need for children to set apart what is healthy and unhealthy, regardless of the influence around them ( Payton et al., 2000). This can be done through classroom education and workshops, and specially designed programs in which students are positively socialized and taught what is right. Collaboration with the necessary stakeholders can also be done to enhance the effectiveness of substance use prevention programs ( Ennett et al., 2003).
A safe school environment where healthy living is extensively discussed and students are engaged in extra-curricular activities that distract them from negative peer pressure is instrumental in ensuring students are free from the damaging effects of substance use. Besides ensuring children join clubs where healthy undertakings are encouraged, and drug abuse activities shunned, workshops and seminars in which children are given extensive information on avoiding drugs are essential. Children can also start being positively socialized at a young age through art and shown through action how, for example, making them part of acting team where awareness about the harmful effects of substance use is done. Casual parent talks and advising of children about how to evade drug addiction are also important. Given that parents primarily interact and understand their children, they are in an excellent position to correct them and positively socialize them through the media they interact with ( Klimes‐Dougan et al., 2007).
The community constitutes the social environment in which children live and are influenced. Children who grow up witnessing a crime or rampant drug use in the community might grow to associate with such undertakings, hence, be influenced. The ability to prevent negative influence on children might be deterred if the negatives in the community a child lives in are highly rampant, and positive socialization does not outdo negative socialization. There successful community models especially successful individuals in different professionals. Some children, for example, aspire to be successful as celebrities such as the Rock.
References
Alters, S., & Schiff, W. (2005). Essential concepts for healthy living . Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Ennett, S. T., Ringwalt, C. L., Thorne, J., Rohrbach, L. A., Vincus, A., Simons-Rudolph, A., & Jones, S. (2003). A comparison of current practice in school-based substance use prevention programs with meta-analysis findings. Prevention Science , 4 (1), 1-14.
Klimes‐Dougan, B., Brand, A. E., Zahn‐Waxler, C., Usher, B., Hastings, P. D., Kendziora, K., & Garside, R. B. (2007). Parental emotion socialization in adolescence: Differences in sex, age and problem status. Social Development , 16 (2), 326-342.
Payton, J. W., Wardlaw, D. M., Graczyk, P. A., Bloodworth, M. R., Tompsett, C. J., & Weissberg, R. P. (2000). Social and emotional learning: A framework for promoting mental health and reducing risk behavior in children and youth. Journal of school health , 70 (5), 179-185.
