Teens no worse than adults in risk evaluation: Study

A study published in the July issue of the journal Pediatrics would compel us to put this belief on the backburner.

Myth busted
The new research suggests that adolescents indulged in unsafe activities such as driving too fast, fighting, drug use, and unprotected sex because they were more likely to believe that they're doomed to die young than those who didn't.

"Thankfully most youths don't hold this belief," says lead author Dr. Iris Wagman Borowsky, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota, "but 15 percent did."

"The conventional wisdom has been that teens underestimate their risk, but there are also studies showing that they are no worse than adults at perceiving their vulnerability to risk and that they tend to overestimate their risk of dying," Dr. Borowsky added.

The findings underpin the significance of instilling a sense of optimism and sanguinity in youth. Strong bonds with parents and friends are thus critical factors in developing an optimistic point of view in young people.

The seven year study
In a long-term analysis that spanned seven years, 1995 through 2002, researchers interviewed 20,594 American teens on three different occasions.

At the first interview, 1.4 percent of the respondents thought there was "almost no chance" of their reaching the age of 35; another 2.4 percent thought it was likely, but the idea was highly far-fetched; and close to 15 percent of the adolescents envisaged that the chances of their reaching the mid thirties was 50-50 or less.

In the subsequent interviews, teenagers who thought they were likely to die young revealed to the researchers that they indulged in risky behavior and made potentially life-threatening choices compared to teens who thought they would live long.

Borowksy said, "We found that those who felt they had a higher likelihood of dying early were more likely in later years to begin engaging in risky behaviors."

During the course of the study, 94 respondents passed away. However, the study could not establish any noteworthy association between perceived risk of dying and actual death.

Borowsky's findings, while gloomy, present an opening; a simple one at that and one that could make a huge difference. Borowsky says asking one simple question could go a long way in saving lives, "What do you want to do when you get older?"