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Affiliation
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Interdisciplinary Social Science, Utrecht University, Padualaan 14, 3584 CH Utrecht, the Netherlands. Electronic address: anoukdeboer_@hotmail.com. |
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Abstract
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INTRODUCTION: In this experiment, we investigated the effect of active (pressure) and passive (imitation) peer encouragement on adolescent risk-taking and assessed gender differences.
METHOD: The participants performed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) with the same-sex e-confederate. The experiment consisted of a 2 (passive encouragement: no/yes updates about the number of pumps of the e-confederate) by 2 (active encouragement: no/yes messages received from the e-confederate) by 2 (gender: girls/boys) by 3 (time: baseline/first message or update/second message or update) mixed design. The participants comprised 138 Dutch secondary-school students aged 11-19 years old of whom 46% boys. They were assigned to one of the four conditions: 1. neutral (e-confederate present), 2. passive (two updates received), 3. active (two messages received), or 4. combined (two updates and two messages received).
RESULTS: Only a significant main effect of passive peer encouragement and a significant interaction effect of passive peer encouragement*time were shown. The participants exposed to passive peer encouragement took significantly more risk compared to other participants. Moreover, adolescent risk-taking significantly increased after the first and second update compared to baseline (no update).
CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that adolescents are more likely to engage in risk-taking because of passive rather than active peer encouragement. Thus, communication through text-based messages in which young people provide information solely about their own risk-taking may be an important aim of prevention and intervention programs.
Copyright © 2018 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Language: en |