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Author: Dawes, Robyn
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Fischhoff, Baruch
Parker, Andrew M.
Bruine de Bruin, Wändi
Downs, Julie
Palmgren, Claire
Dawes, Robyn
Manski, Charles F.
Teen Expectations for Significant Life Events
Public Opinion Quarterly 64,2 (Summer 2000): 189-205.
Also: http://poq.oxfordjournals.org/content/64/2/189.full.pdf+html
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Keyword(s): Crime; Educational Aspirations/Expectations; Educational Returns; Employment, Youth; Ethnic Differences; Gender Differences; Health Factors; High School Diploma; Human Capital Theory; Pregnancy and Pregnancy Outcomes; Probability judgments (also see Risk Perception); Psychological Effects; Racial Differences; Risk Perception

Managing risks is an important part of growing up. Young people must decide whether to do things that they do not like (e.g., homework) in the hopes of getting things that they do (e.g., good jobs). They must also decide whether to avoid doing things that they do like (e.g., drinking heavily) in order to reduce the risk of outcomes that they do not (e.g., auto accidents). Making these decisions effectively requires accurate assessments of the probabilities of uncertain events occurring in their lives. As a result, risk perceptions play a central role in many psychological theories of adolescent development and health behavior (e.g., Beyth-Marom and Fischhoff 1997; Feldman and Elliott 1990; Fischhoff, Downs, and Bruine de Bruin 1998; Institute of Medicine 1999; Jacobs and Ganzel 1993) and in interventions designed to improve these perceptions (e.g., Baron and Brown 1991; Millstein, Petersen, and Nightingale 1993; Schulenberg, Maggs, and Hurnelmans 1997). Risk (and benefit) perceptions are also central to economic theories of human capital formation, which hold that teens' willingness to invest in themselves should reflect the expected return on that investment. Thus, education should be more valuable to teens who expect it to increase their chances of employment and who expect to live long enough to reap those rewards (Dominitz and Manski 1996). The present study reports the expectations reported by teen respondents to the 1997 National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY97; Bureau of Labor Statistics 1998; Center for Human Resource Research 1998), regarding 18 significant life events. The questions were formulated in order to allow comparison of answers with public health statistics. The set of questions was designed to evaluate teens' usage of the probability response mode as well (see also Budescu and Wallsten 1995; Dominitz and Manski 1997a, 1997b; Quadrel, Fischhoff, and Davis 1993; Yates 1990). The overall NLSY97 question pool reflects the work of many investig ators, specialists in the topics of NLSY97's many modules. These expectation questions were administered to 15- and 16-year-olds, using computers brought into respondents' homes. Its questions were refined through one-on-one focused interviews with a diverse group of Pittsburgh-area teens. ? 2000 by the American Association for Public Opinion Research
Bibliography Citation
Fischhoff, Baruch, Andrew M. Parker, Wändi Bruine de Bruin, Julie Downs, Claire Palmgren, Robyn Dawes and Charles F. Manski. "Teen Expectations for Significant Life Events ." Public Opinion Quarterly 64,2 (Summer 2000): 189-205.