Anticipating Early Fatality: Friends', Schoolmates' and Individual Perceptions of Fatality on Adolescent Risk Behaviors

• NCJ Number: 244796
• Journal: Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 43 Issue: 2 Dated: February 2014 Pages: 175-192
• Author(s): Dana L. Haynie; Brian Soller; Kristi Williams
• Date Published: February 2014
• Length: 18 pages
• Grant Number(s): HD31921; R24-HD058484
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Using data from Add Health and a sample of 9,584 adolescents (51 percent female and 71 percent White) nested in 113 schools. This study builds upon prior research by examining the association between friends', school mates', and individual perceptions of early fatality and adolescent risk behaviors.

Abstract

Past research indicates that anticipating adverse outcomes, such as early death (fatalism), is associated positively with adolescents' likelihood of engaging in risky behaviors. Health researchers and criminologists have argued that fatalism influences present risk taking in part by informing individuals' motivation for delaying gratification for the promise of future benefits. While past findings highlight the association between the anticipation of early death and a number of developmental outcomes, no known research has assessed the impact of location in a context characterized by high perceptions of fatality. Using data from Add Health and a sample of 9,584 adolescents (51 percent female and 71 percent White) nested in 113 schools. This study builds upon prior research by examining the association between friends', school mates', and individual perceptions of early fatality and adolescent risk behaviors. The authors tested whether friends' anticipation of being killed prior to age 21 or location in a school where a high proportion of the student body subscribes to attitudes of high fatality, was associated with risky behaviors. Results indicate that friends' fatalism is positively associated with engaging in violent delinquency, non-violent delinquency, and drug use after controlling for individual covariates and prior individual risk-taking. Although friends' delinquency accounts for much of the effect of friends' fatalism on violence, none of the potential intervening variables fully explain the effect of friends' fatalism on youth involvement in non-violent delinquency and drug use. The results underscore the importance of friendship contextual effects in shaping adolescent risk-taking behavior and the very serious consequences perceptions of fatality have for adolescents' involvement in delinquency and drug use. Abstract published by arrangement with Springer.