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Cited by 50Adolescent Health and BehaviorsDeath Anxiety and Social ExclusionSuicide and Self-Harm Studies

Adolescents' Perceived Risk of Dying

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Fischhoff, Baruch, Bruine de Bruin, Wändi, Parker, Andrew M., Millstein, Susan G., Halpern-Felsher, Bonnie L.·2010·Journal of Adolescent Health
DOI 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.06.026PMC PMC2824593
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Abstract

Purpose Although adolescents' expectations are accurate or moderately optimistic for many significant life events, they greatly overestimate their chances of dying soon. We examine here whether adolescents' mortality judgments are correlated with their perceptions of direct threats to their survival. Such sensitivity would indicate the importance of ensuring that adolescents have accurate information about those threats, as well as the psychological support needed to deal with them.Methods Data from two separate studies were used: a national sample of 3,436 14-18-year-old adolescents and a regional sample of 124 seventh graders and 132 ninth graders, 12-16 years old. Participants were asked about their chance of dying in the next year and before age 20, and about the extent of various threats to their physical well-being.Results Adolescents in both samples greatly overestimated their chance of dying. Those mortality estimates were higher for adolescents who reported direct threats (e.g., an unsafe neighborhood). Thus, adolescents were sensitive to the relative size of threats to their survival, but not to the implications for absolute risk levels.Conclusions Contrary to the folk wisdom that adolescents have a unique sense of invulnerability, the individuals studied here reported an exaggerated sense of mortality, which was highest among those reporting greater threats in their lives. Such fears could affect adolescents' short-term well-being and future planning.

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  • Perceived threats and crime expectations in the environment, but not actual experience with violence, correlated with mortality judgments.

    “Perceived threats and crime expectations in the environment, but not actual experience with violence, correlated with mortality judgments (Fischhoff et al. 2010).”

    From Is Adolescence a Sensitive Period for Sociocultural Processing? (2014) · cites this paper as Fischhoff et al. 2010

    The Results section reports that perceived threat and crime expectations correlated with mortality judgments in the UCSF study, while reports of violent events did not correlate significantly. But it also reports that all four threat measures correlated significantly with mortality judgments in NLSY97, so the claim's unqualified statement about actual experience with violence does not hold across both studies. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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  • Adolescents over-estimate their risk of dying soon.

    “It appears that adolescents over-estimate their risk of dying soon [57].”

    From Medical decision-making in children and adolescents: developmental and neuroscientific aspects (2017) · cites this paper as [57]

  • A recent report suggested that adolescents perceive their risk of dying soon as higher than it actually is.

    “A recent report suggested that adolescents perceive their risk of dying soon as higher than it actually is (Fischhoff et al. 2010).”

    From Is Adolescence a Sensitive Period for Sociocultural Processing? (2014) · cites this paper as Fischhoff et al. 2010

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Authors
Fischhoff, B., Bruine de Bruin, W., Parker, A. M., Millstein, S. G., & Halpern-Felsher, B. L.
Affiliations
  • Carnegie Mellon University (US)
  • RAND Corporation (US)
  • University of California, San Francisco (US)
Corresponding author
Fischhoff, Baruch
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Adolescent Health
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2010-03
Volume
46
Issue
3
Pages
265-269
ISSN
1054-139X (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.06.026
PMC
PMC2824593
OpenAlex
W2046525223
Cited by
50
References
29
Citations by year
2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 3
FWCI
4.83
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Journal of Adolescent Health (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • U.S. Public Health Service (MCJ 000978)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (R03MH062376)
  • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD 34412, R01HD034412)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Adolescent Health and Behaviors
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
Keywords
invulnerability, physical well-being, neighborhood safety, youth welfare, future planning
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Psychology, Adolescent, Child, Death, Female, Humans, Interviews as Topic, Male, Risk Assessment, Resilience, Psychological

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