In this seventh session, we consider how easy it can sometimes be to walk down a particular path and, before we know it, feel so overwhelmed by a situation that it seems there's no way back. This is achieved using the concept of a nexus point — a singular decisive moment that can significantly change the trajectory or outcome of a particular situation.

Last time, students decided that they wanted to be responsible for their own choices. Now they'll consider taking that responsibility and, importantly, understanding the optimum timeframe for making decisions that don't narrow down their options or lead them to choices they would not want to make? On the face of it, this seems easy. However, it's not always straightforward when confronted with decisions that put them at odds with what friends, peers or other influences believe and how these drive their own psychological needs.

The key to this is striking a balance between the kind of risks that all young people must take as they develop and grow; and the unnecessary risks that can lead them into harm, the unintended consequences of their actions. Understanding this begins with examining the concept of risk and why it's an essential part of growing up before looking again at Ella's Story to explore the fine line between risk and the small, step-by-step decisions that lead inexorably to nexus points that are difficult to avoid.

The science of adolescent risk-taking leads to two broad conclusions when seeking to help young people better regulate the risks they face. First, bombarding them with the facts won't help them make better decisions and might encourage a less mature, riskier form of reasoning. Second, because adolescents' brains are not yet mature, exposure to significant risks should be limited asmuch as possible.

In terms of the second point, it's not always easy to control a young person's environment all of the time. Therefore, we have to find ways to empower them to do so. A major developmental milestone in becoming an adult is learning to manage emotions; so you don't get fired from a job or ruin friendships. We learn how to control our passion. This is partly linked to the brain growing, dopamine levels lowering, and hormones settling down. Still, it is also about building more experience and developing our repertoire of things to do when we feel upset or angry. Some of this happens with maturation, but it can also be encouraged or taught.

 The Choices Programme aims to do precisely that, using stories as a critical mechanism to introduce learning. The human brain processes imagined experiences, such as stories, in the same way as real ones, creating genuine emotions, presence (the sense of being somewhere) and behavioural responses. Our research tells us that the use of characters as proxies in this way enables young people to safely explore challenges they might face but in an objective, thoughtful way while also identifying with the characters and learning from their situations. Ultimately, this helps them to build their experience and, consequently, their capability to act.

What if...

Risk is an essential component of a balanced childhood. Exposure to healthy risks, particularly physical, enables children to experience fear and learn about their strengths and limitations. Neuro-imbalance theory is concerned with the idea that the emotional part of the brain develops earlier than the prefrontal cortex (the part responsible for decision-making), or at least that they're not wired together very well until later in life. This leads adolescents to take risks that most adults wouldn't—not because they think they're invincible, but because emotions rule the day, and they have very high levels of dopamine in their brain. Consequently, things appear more exciting, more enticing to them. They are more driven by reward, and want to go after something with a high potential yield reward—like the thrill of the rollercoaster. However, it doesn't just apply to rollercoaster rides. Driving 100 miles per hour or taking drugs elicit the same feelings of excitement too.

This brain chemistry is evolutionarily advantageous to humans because we need young, healthy risk-takers who can run faster and tolerate extremes of temperature and pain. We need these adolescents to find new food and water sources and new mates. However, teens also get sick, injured, into trouble and die, in more significant numbers because of the behaviours they engage in, the emotions they feel, and the way they think about things. That's the adolescent paradox.

The following exercise uses two intervention strategies to support effective risk management. The first is all about developing emotional and personal cues. The most salient cues to making mature decisions are simple, visceral, and personal, so the questions posed force students to confront a 'what if' scenario. The second teaches self-efficacy. Giving young people real-world tasks and concrete strategies helps them become responsible and capable. In this example, students will practice refusal skills; repeated practice leads to improved self-confidence in using these skills when needed, often in situations involving high emotion that can disrupt thinking. A well-practised skill can be used automatically without requiring a lot of thinking.

Risks will have less appeal if young people perceive more significant benefits from alternative, safer courses of action. For younger adolescents, as in this case, it's a good idea to help them think about short-term benefits and risks, as these are the most salient. This particular activity introduces another risk management strategy, i.e. assisting adolescents in seeing benefits, not just risks.

Assign students to three groups 

Nexus points are moments when a timeline can change, creating an alternative reality. In other words, they are events where a critical decision causes a fork in the path for a person, or in this case, a character. Analysing these nexus points provides an essential mechanism to help young people 'think forward' to the potential consequences of their decisions. However, in this activity, students benefit from knowing the entire timeline and working back from a consequence or possible consequence to understand how earlier decisions led to that point.

At the start of the session, we looked at emotional and personal cues as a strategy to support effective risk management, and students were challenged to think about the impact of a fictional but all-too-common scenario. We'll build upon this to finish the session, introducing an additional strategy to help develop self-efficacy. Giving young people real-world tasks and concrete strategies helps them become responsible and capable. In this example, students will practice refusal skills. Repeated practice leads to improved self-confidence in using these skills when needed, often in highly emotive situations that can disrupt thinking. A well-practised skill can be used automatically without requiring a lot of thought.