Poster #104 - Adolescent Risk-Taking: A Comparison of Self-Reported Behaviors and Self-Perceptions

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Health, Growth, Injury

Integrative Statement

To assess adolescent risk-taking, researchers typically ask adolescents how often they engage in a variety of risky behaviors (Kloep et al., 2009). No research, however, has examined whether adolescents consider themselves to be risk-takers (i.e., self-perceptions about risk taking). The comparison of these two forms of assessment would provide insight into whether adolescents are aware of their risk-taking behaviors (e.g., whether high risk-takers accurately perceive themselves as risk-takers). There are four possible profiles that could emerge from this comparison: (1) aware risk-takers (2) unaware risk-takers (3) aware non-risk-takers (4) unaware non-risk-takers. Moreover, the majority of past research has focused on more extreme risk behaviors (e.g., drug use; Hanson et al., 2014). There are, however, other types of risks that adolescents may engage in (e.g., rule-breaking; Gullone et al., 2000). Taken together, the goal of the present study was to examine the relationship between the frequency of adolescents risk-taking behaviors (high vs low) and their self-perceptions of themselves as risk-takers (yes vs no), and to assess whether the types of risk taking behaviors that adolescents endorse (extreme, rule-breaking, adventurous, social) are associated with their awareness of themselves as a risk-taker.

Method: Adolescents (Grade 6-8; N = 437) completed a survey assessing the extent to which they engaged in 33 risky behaviors in the past year (e.g., rode a bike without a helmet, cheated on a test, etc.), as well as their perceptions of themselves as risk-takers (e.g., Do you consider yourself a risk-taker?).

Results: A chi-square test indicated a significant relationship between risk-taking behaviors (low vs. high) and perceptions of oneself as a risk-taker (no vs. yes); χ2(1) = 70.83, p < .001 (see Table 1). Low risk-takers were significantly more likely to perceive themselves as non-risk-takers (85.5%, CI [.791, .906]) than high risk-takers were to perceive themselves as risk-takers (61.1%, CI [.526, .691]). Further, one-way ANOVAs revealed that aware risk-takers engaged in more extreme, rule-breaking, and adventurous risks than all other profiles (ps < .001). Importantly, unaware risk-takers engaged in more rule-breaking and adventurous risks than non-risk-takers (ps < .001); however, they were no different on extreme risk-taking than the non-risk-takers (ps > .05). There was no significant difference between aware and unaware risk-takers engagement in social risks (p = .953, see Table 2).

Overall, low risk-takers may be more aware of their risk-taking behaviors (i.e., had self-perceptions that were consistent with their behavior), compared to high risk-takers. Further, adolescents awareness of their risk-taking behavior may differ depending on the types of risks they endorsed. Specifically, although both unaware and aware risk-takers engage in a high frequency of risks, unaware risk-takers were no different on extreme risks than non-risk-takers. Thus, to adolescents, risk-taking may be about taking extreme risks. Of concern, unaware risk-takers are engaging in other types of risks (e.g., rule-breaking), yet lack awareness that these behaviors classify them as risk-takers. This group may be less receptive to educational programs and interventions focused on decreasing risk-taking given that this information may seem irrelevant.

Authors

• Breanne Wylie, Brock University
  Presenting Author

• Taylor Heffer, Brock University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Teena Willoughby, Brock University
  Non-Presenting Author