Jessica Burnham
Dr. James Wallace, Department of Psychology
SLU Festival of Science 2001 - Poster Presentation

“Early Adolescent Risk-Taking: The Influence of Peers”

Risk-taking in adolescence is an important area to study, and this research focuses on the role of peer influence in early adolescent risk-taking.  Our study builds upon the past work of four former St. Lawrence students, who also looked at the predictors of risk-taking, and developed a questionnaire that assesses a number of elements involved in both socially-approved and socially-disapproved risks.  We have expanded the questionnaire to look at the role of various forms of peer influence on children’s self-reports of risky behavior.

There were 32 participants from each of the 4^th, 6^th, and 8^th grades.  Randomly assigned to same-sex groups of 4 within their grade level, they were taken to a separate room to participate in the study.  The students completed an Activity Questionnaire, which assessed 18 different risks, 6 socially-approved and 12 socially-disapproved.  After testing, the children returned to their classroom.  Data collection took approximately 20 minutes and will be completed today.

Multiple regression analyses will enable us to determine which factors best predict risk taking.  In particular, we are interested in questions that attempt to sort peer influence into the categories of peer pressure, peer conformity, peer influence and general conformity.