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Theories of Adolescent Risk-Taking Behavior

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Handbook of Adolescent Health Risk Behavior

Part of the book series: Issues in Clinical Child Psychology ((ICCP))

Abstract

The study of adolescent risk-taking behavior gained prominence in the 1980s as it became increasingly evident that the majority of the morbidity and mortality during the second decade of life was behavioral in origin. The term risk-taking behavior has been used to link, conceptually, a number of potentially health-damaging behaviors including, among others, substance use, precocious or risky sexual behavior, reckless vehicle use, homicidal and suicidal behavior, eating disorders, and delinquency. The linkage of these behaviors under a single domain is theoretically useful because it allows for the investigation of particular behaviors in the context of other behaviors. The construct of risk-taking behavior also suggests a more parsimonious use of interventions, targeting groups of behaviors rather than applying multiple more narrowly targeted interventions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, 94143, USA

    Vivien Igra & Charles E. Irwin Jr.

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  1. Vivien Igra
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  2. Charles E. Irwin Jr.
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Health Behavior and Pediatrics, University of Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

    Ralph J. DiClemente Ph.D.

  2. Department of Public Health Sciences, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA

    William B. Hansen Ph.D.

  3. Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA

    Lynn E. Ponton Ph.D.

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Igra, V., Irwin, C.E. (1996). Theories of Adolescent Risk-Taking Behavior. In: DiClemente, R.J., Hansen, W.B., Ponton, L.E. (eds) Handbook of Adolescent Health Risk Behavior. Issues in Clinical Child Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0203-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0203-0_3

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