Adolescents' Perceptions of the Benefits and Risks of Their Own Risk Taking

Abstract

Currently, there is much interest in the extent to which adolescents engage in risk-taking behavior (RTB), particularly drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and having unprotected sex. However, there is little research on adolescents' perceptions of the benefits and consequences of these and other risk-taking behaviors, or how these perceptions are related to their behavioral involvement. College students were chosen for this study specifically because older adolescents (a) engage in a wide variety of RTBs and (b) have been relatively understudied with regard to RTBs. Using the Risk Involvement and Perception Scale (RIPS) (Parsons, Siegel, & Cousins, in press), researchers asked 26 adolescents ages 18 years to 21 years on two occasions (2 weeks apart) to rate their involvement in and perceptions of the risks and benefits of 19 behaviors representing a wide range of behavioral health risks. The RIPS was developed, pilot tested, and found to be highly reliable and internally consistent. Subjects reported a wide range of involvement across the behaviors. In general, subjects' perceived benefits were strongly and positively related to their reported involvements; their perceived risks were negatively and less strongly related. A factor analysis of the subjects' involvement yielded six independent clusters of risk-taking behaviors: alcohol use, illegal drug use, sexual activity, stereotypical male behaviors, imprudent behaviors, and socially acceptable behaviors. In regression analyses, perceived benefits accounted for most of the variance in subjects' involvement in these clusters of behaviors. Results are discussed in the context of current theories of adolescent risk taking.

Búsqueda de sensaciones y consumo de alcohol: El papel mediador de la percepción de riesgos y beneficios

“…Además, los hombres perciben menos riesgos y más beneficios asociados al consumo de alcohol, un patrón que también ha sido observado en varios estudios sobre distintas conductas de riesgo (i.e., sexo sin protección, consumo de drogas, conductas imprudentes, etc.) llevados a cabo con adolescentes y jóvenes (Parsons et al, 1997(Parsons et al, , 2000Prat, et al, 2012;Rolison y Scherman, 2003;Siegel et al, 1994).…”

“…De acuerdo con las predicciones de algunos modelos de conductas de salud como el modelo de creencias de salud de Janz y Becker (1984), la teoría de la acción razonada de Fishbein y Ajzen (1975) o la teoría de la conducta planificada de Ajzen (1991), existe una relación negativa entre la percepción de riesgos y la conducta arriesgada (Gil-Lacruz y GilLacruz, 2010;Kelly, Darke y Ross, 2004;López-Larrosa y Rodríguez-Arias, 2010;Machin y Plint, 2010;Rolison y Scherman, 2002;Siegel et al, 1994). Esto significa que las personas que perciben más riesgos en una conducta se ven más disuadidas de llevarla a cabo; del mismo modo, las personas que perciben pocos riesgos en una conducta se ven más motivadas para implicarse en ella.…”

“…Diversos autores (Goldberg, Halpern-Felsher y Millstein, 2002;Reyna y Farley, 2006;Siegel et al, 1994) señalan que la percepción de beneficios, en ocasiones, es mejor predictor de la conducta arriesgada que la percepción de riesgos. Así, en un estudio con 187 estudiantes de Psicología, Parsons, Siegel y Cousins (1997) observaron que la percepción de beneficios predecía mejor la implicación de los jóvenes en tres conductas arriesgadas: consumo de alcohol, consumo de drogas ilegales y conductas imprudentes.…”

An Investigation of Multiple Pathways of Developmental Intervention Change

“…Similar to Luyckx et al's (2008) identification of adaptive and maladaptive identity exploration, this argument appears to reflect the recognition of subjectively meaningful qualitative differences in problematic behaviors. As Siegal and Scovill (2000) (Lavery, Siegel, & Rubovits, 1993;Shapiro, Siegel, Scovill, & Hays, 1998;Siegel, Cousins, Rubovits, Parsons, Lavery, & Crowley, 1994) At the time of this study, research regarding participant attrition in the CLP is unavailable, though attrition is known to be considerable. The alternative high schools from which the sample was drawn do not record their own attrition data (Albrecht, 2007).…”

Examining Risk-Taking Behavior and Sensation Seeking Requirement in Extreme Athletes

“…Total 101 extreme athletes including 31 females, 70 males with an age average of 22.03 ± 6.77 participated in the research. In order to determine athletes' sensation seeking levels, "Arnett Inventory of Sensation Seeking" developed by Arnett (1994) and in order to determine their risk-taking behavior, "Risk Involvement and Perception Scale" developed by Siegel et al (1994) were used. In evaluation of research data, frequency analysis, independent t test, in determination of relation between risk-taking and sensation seeking, correlation test were utilized.…”