title: Predictors of children's and adolescents' risk perception.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test cognitive-developmental, social-cognitive, motivational, and cognitive hypotheses about the psychological mechanisms underlying children's risk perception.
  
  
  METHODS
  Youth (N = 1315) ranging from 9 to 17 years of age completed measures assessing adolescent egocentrism, personal experience with four negative health events, how much they worried about the health events, and their perceived skill for event-related activities. The measures were completed twice, 12 months apart.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Lacking personal experience with and worrying less about health threats were significant predictors of more optimistically biased risk perception a year later.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The lack of experience with and not worrying about serious health consequences may desensitize children to potential health risks. Clinical applications for health education programs are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0348, USA. green@bama.ua.edu
authors.forename: Leilani
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Greening
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Stoppelbein
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Chandler
authors.forename: T David
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Elkin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010465:Perception; D012309:Risk-Taking