Teen Expectations for Significant Life Events

• Published in: Public opinion quarterly 2000-07, Vol.64 (2), p.189-205
• Main Authors: FISCHHOFF, BARUCH, PARKER, ANDREW M., BRUIN, WÄNDI BRUINE DE, DOWNS, JULIE, PALMGREN, CLAIRE, DAWES, ROBYN, MANSKI, CHARLES F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescents; Age; Attitudes; Bachelors degrees; Crime victims; Criminal arrests; Criminal statistics; Decision Making; Employment; Estimates; Expectation; Fertility; Health care statistics; Hispanics; Jails; Life Events; Mortality; Probabilities; Probability; Public health; Research Note; Risk; Social Perception; Statistical analysis; Studies; Teenagers; U.S.A; Uncertainty; Youth
• ISSN: 0033-362X; 1537-5331
• DOI: 10.1086/317762

An adolescent's ability to make effective decisions requires that he or she be able to accurately assess the probability that uncertain events will occur. This ability is referred to as risk perception, a skill that plays an important role in psychological theories of adolescent behavior & human capital formation. The risk perceptions of 3,544 adolescent respondents to the 1997 National Longitudinal Study of Youth are reported. Seventeen questions -- ranging from will you get the flu sometime in the next year, to will you die from any cause in the next year -- are analyzed. The teens are reported to have, for the most part, realistic ideas about how the life events in question will affect them. They also view themselves as being relatively in control of their lives. A disproportionate number, however, are of the opinion that the world is out of control, & that they will die in the near future. It is posited, therefore, that teens' risky behavior can be linked to the fact that many think they are going to die, regardless of the choices they make. 2 Tables, 1 Figure, 2 Appendixes, 21 References. K. A. Larsen