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Journal of Pediatric Psychology Advance Access originally published online on February 23, 2005
Journal of Pediatric Psychology 2005 30(5):425-435; doi:10.1093/jpepsy/jsi066
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Journal of Pediatric Psychology vol. 30 no. 5 © Society of Pediatric Psychology 2005; all rights reserved.

Predictors of Children’s and Adolescents’ Risk Perception

Leilani Greening, PhD1, Laura Stoppelbein, PhD2, C. C. Chandler, PhD3 and T. David Elkin, PhD2

1 University of Alabama, 2 University of Mississippi Medical Center, and 3 Washington State University

All correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to L. Greening, Department of Psychology, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0348. E-mail: green{at}bama.ua.edu.

Received January 11, 2004; revisions received May 8, 2004, and June 25; accepted August 25, 2004

Objective To test cognitive-developmental, social-cognitive, motivational, and cognitive hypotheses about the psychological mechanisms underlying children’s risk perception. Method 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.

Key words: risk perception; children; adolescents; unrealistic optimism; health beliefs.


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