title: Optimism and adolescent perception of skin cancer risk.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The present study examined comparative optimism for skin cancer (the belief that one is at lower risk for skin cancer than one's peers) among adolescents in two age groups: 11- and 12-year-olds versus 13- and 14-year-olds. Specifically, we tested whether optimism was enhanced when adolescents at lower relative risk (i.e., nontanners) were exposed to higher-risk comparison targets (photos of tanned models) and whether this effect was moderated by age.
  
  
  METHODS
  Students (N = 211) viewed pictures of either tanned or fair-skinned models, and then responded to a questionnaire that included an assessment of their comparative optimism for skin cancer in later life.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Students, as a whole, were comparatively optimistic about their likelihood of developing skin cancer, despite the fact that more than half (55.6%) of them reported intentionally tanning. Analysis of variance revealed a significant 3-way interaction among behavior (tanner vs. nontanner), target (pale vs. tanned model), and age (early vs. mid-adolescents). The interaction was driven by a particularly strong amount of comparative optimism in one group: mid-adolescent, nontanning students in the tan-target condition.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Most adolescents believe they are less likely than their peers to experience a negative health outcome. It also appears that the relation between social comparison and comparative optimism develops with age, as only the midadolescent students showed evidence of making a self-to-target comparison.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA. Megan.E.Roberts@Dartmouth.edu
authors.forename: Megan E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: Frederick X
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Gibbons
authors.forename: Meg
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gerrard
authors.forename: Marissa D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Alert
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D055108:Sunbathing / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires