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Updated: Aug 2, 2026

Measuring Attentional Biases for Threat in Children and Adults
Published on: October 19, 2014
Predictors of children's and adolescents' risk perception
Leilani Greening1, Laura Stoppelbein, C C Chandler
1Department of Psychology, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0348, USA. green@bama.ua.edu
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.
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