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

ALEXANDER W. SIEGEL is a professor of psychology and director of Graduate Training in Developmental Psychology at the University of Houston. He received his PhD in child psychology from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota in 1966. He has published over 150 articles, chapters, and edited books on topics including learning and memory development in children, spatial cognition, childhood depression, and the history of developmental psychology. Address: Alexander W. Siegel, Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204–5341.

Jennifer H. Cousins

JENNIFER H. COUSINS is an assistant professor of medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, and director of Health Promotion for the Debakey Health Center. She received her PhD in developmental psychology from the University of Houston in 1984 and currently holds the position of adjunct assistant professor of psychology at that institution. Dr. Cousins has published numerous papers in such varied areas as children and adult's spatial cognition and parent-toddler interaction. Her major interest is in the design and conduct of family-oriented and community-based interventions to promote healthy living practices in Hispanic communities.

David S. Rubovits

DAVID S. RUBOVITS is currently head of Pediatric Psychology, Department of Pediatrics, at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received his PhD in developmental psychology from the University of Houston in 1990. He has published several articles on the impact of chronic illness on cognitive development and is currently involved in research and training of pediatric residents in child development.

Jeffrey T. Parsons

JEFFREY T. PARSONS is currently an assistant professor of psychology at Jersey City State College, as well as project co-director of a major project at the Hemophilia Research Center, Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York City. He received his PhD in developmental psychology from the University of Houston in 1991. He has published several articles on the relationships among perceived benefits, risks, intentions, and involvement in risk-taking behaviors of college students.

Barbara Lavery

BARBARA LAVERY is currently director of Youth Clinical Services for Brazoria County, Texas. She received her MA from Eastern Illinois University in 1973, is licensed as an LPC in the State of Texas, and is currently completing her doctoral dissertation in developmental psychology at the University of Houston. In addition to her 10 years of experience in family therapy, she has published several articles on risk taking in clinical samples of young adolescents.

Carolyn L. Crowley

CAROLYN L. CROWLEY received her MA in developmental psychology from the University of Houston in 1993 and is working on her PhD degree. She is coauthor of a paper on adolescent risk taking and a book review on the limitations of genetic theory in developmental psychology.

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.

Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, Vol. 2, No. 2, 89-98 (1994)
DOI: 10.1177/106342669400200203


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