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Published on: November 21, 2013
An examination of adolescent risk-taking using a story completion task
S M Moore1, E Gullone, M Kostanski
1Department of Psychology, Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.
Journal of Adolescence
|August 1, 1997
Summary
Adolescents
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Adolescent Development
- Risk-Taking Behavior
Background:
- Adolescent risk-taking is a significant area of developmental psychology.
- Understanding the predictors of adolescent risk-taking is crucial for intervention and prevention strategies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if perceived consequences of behaviors in narrative tasks predict adolescent risk-taking.
- To compare projective story-based findings with existing self-report research on adolescent risk.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of story themes from 570 adolescents (aged 12-17) using 'complete the story' tasks.
- Coding of story protagonists' participation in risks and their behavioral outcomes.
- Assessment of links between story elements and comparison with self-report data.
Main Results:
- Adolescents were more prone to writing stories involving negative risks and short-term consequences.
- Perceived short-term consequences significantly predicted risk participation.
- Perceived long-term consequences did not predict risk participation.
Conclusions:
- Narrative tasks offer valuable insights into adolescent risk-taking.
- Short-term consequences are key predictors of adolescent risk behavior, more so than long-term ones.
- Findings align with and expand upon previous self-report studies on adolescent risk.
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