Risky behaviour of children and youth: public health perspective

Sa？etak Adolescence is a time when children become more independent and start experimenting with new forms of behaviour, which are often undesirable or risky. Such behaviours can have consequences, such as poor mental health, poor academic performance, legal problems, addiction, and other issues that have a major negative impact on health and success in later life. In this paper we try to give an overview of frequent risk behaviours in adolescents (peer violence and cigarette, alcohol and cannabis consumption) from a public health perspective with a special focus on the situation in Croatia, as well as to mention risk factors and protective factors for the development of these behaviours