Question

It’s Not Easy Being a Teen Written Response
Being a teenager comes with unique challenges and responsibilities. Teenagers must navigate being comfortable in their own skin, managing some of their own affairs, decision-making in real time, and building healthy social and romantic relationships.
Consider the text we’ve encountered during this lesson then create a response to the question below.
"Reducing Risks for Teen Drivers
To explore how families are managing the risks new drivers face, Safe Kids Worldwide, with the support of a grant from the General Motors Foundation, surveyed 753 pairs consisting of a new teen driver and one of his or her parents.
We found that teens from families where there is a formal agreement about what the new teen driver is expected to do while driving reported less risky behavior. The formal agreement could be written or verbal, but established family rules around risky behaviors. Teens with a related rule were more likely to wear their seat belt every time and were less likely to speed, drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs, drive distracted, drive with teen passengers and drive after dark. However, when we asked our parent-teen driver pairs about three scenarios that involved decision making around a family rule, it was clear that setting a rule is not enough. Parents need to explore specific scenarios with their teen driver so that expectations are clear and the teen driver is prepared with the necessary confidence and skills to manage challenging scenarios when they arise.
Teens who told us their parents modeled positive behavior also reported less risky behavior. This is an encouraging situation, given that teens told us their parents had the most influence on the teens’ driving and that the time they spent practicing driving with their parents was the most helpful in learning to drive. Here are some strategies for parents and families to help ensure their teen driver stays safe:
• Make a formal agreement with your teen driver and enforce it
• Be a role model for safe driving by following the rules yourself
• Ensure your new teen driver gets at least 50 hours of supervised experience under a variety of driving conditions
By engaging with these strategies, we hope that new teen drivers and their parents can stay safe while riding in cars."
Use evidence from multiple sources from the lesson to support your response. Within your response, identify three sentences that use active voice. Underline the subject in these sentences. Double underline the verb or verb phrases in these sentences.

Writing Task: How do trusted relationships and safe decision-making help teens stay healthy and grow into well-balanced young adults?
Purpose for Writing:
Audience:

Answer 1

Trusted relationships and clear decision-making guidelines help teens stay healthy and become well-balanced adults by giving them structure, confidence, and healthy models to imitate. The Safe Kids Worldwide survey of 753 parent–teen driver pairs shows how this works in a concrete way: families that created a formal agreement about driving expectations — whether written or verbal — had teens who engaged in less risky behavior. Those teens were more likely to wear seat belts every time and less likely to speed, drive under the influence, drive distracted, drive with teen passengers, or drive after dark. The lesson also emphasized that simply setting a rule is not enough; parents who discuss realistic scenarios with their teens help make expectations clear and give teens practice in the kinds of decision-making they will actually face on the road.

Trusted relationships foster open communication and modeling. When parents actively model safe behavior and spend time practicing driving with their teens, the teens report safer choices. For example, the lesson recommends at least 50 hours of supervised driving across varied conditions so teens gain experience and confidence before driving independently. That combination of guidance, modeling, and hands-on practice reduces impulsive risk-taking and builds the judgment teens need in stressful moments.

Trusted adults do more than hand down rules; they help teens develop the cognitive and emotional skills behind good choices. Clear expectations reduce ambiguity (so teens are less likely to make risky split-second decisions), and supportive relationships let teens ask questions, admit uncertainty, and learn from mistakes without shame. In short, when teens have caring adults who model safe behavior, enforce and explain reasonable rules, and provide supervised practice, they are better prepared to make healthy decisions that protect themselves and others — a foundation for becoming well-balanced young adults.

Three sentences in active voice (subject underlined, verb/verb phrase double-underlined):
- _Parents_ __model__ positive driving behavior for their teens.
- _Teens_ __reported__ less risky behavior when families established a formal agreement.
- _Parents_ __must explore__ specific decision-making scenarios with their teen drivers so expectations are clear.