Risk Taking in Adolescence: "To Be or Not to Be" Is Not Really the Question

  • Taubman B
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Abstract

(from the chapter) Risk-taking behaviors, such as unprotected sex, reckless driving, substance abuse, or challenging sportive activities, are the most severe threats to adolescent health and may even cause eventual death. What makes young people ready to take such major risks to their lives? Doesn't it contradict their basic self-preservation instinct? What are the basic psychological determinants of risky behaviors? To answer these questions, it is essential to understand the existential circumstances and needs of adolescence and how they affect the internal risk-taking schemas, along with the potential external influences on these behaviors. Importantly, risk taking is not a unified phenomenon, it consists of a wide range of activities. Though some of the theoretical approaches attempted to comprehend a host of behaviors, many studies in this field relate to a specific behavior. In this chapter, I endeavor to integrate the knowledge in order to advance the understanding of risky behaviors as a whole, as well as to pay attention to specific behaviors. Notably, this chapter is devoted to specific risk-taking variables rather than to global personality variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved)

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APA

Taubman, B.-A. (2004). Risk Taking in Adolescence: “To Be or Not to Be” Is Not Really the Question. In J. Greenberg, T. Pyszczynski, & S. L. Koole (Eds.), Handbook of Experimental Existential Psychology (pp. 104–121). New York: The Guilford Press.

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