Predictors of children's and adolescents' risk perception.
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.
Greening
Leilani
L
Department of Psychology, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0348, USA. green@bama.ua.edu
Stoppelbein
Laura
L
Chandler
C C
CC
Elkin
T David
TD
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