Adolescents'
substance-related risk perceptions: Antecedents, mediatiors,
and consequences
Meg Gerrard,
Frederick X. Gibbons, Linda S. Vande Lune, Nancy A. Pexa, Michelle L. Gano
(2002) Risk Decision &
Policy, 7, 175-191.
Examined the degree to which
adolescents' absolute and comparative perceptions of vulnerability to potential
negative consequences of substance use mediate the relation between traditional
predictors of use and actual substance use.
234 adolescents (aged 12-14 yrs), primarily African Americans, completed
surveys concerning: (1) parental communication; (2) risk-taking tendencies; (3)
friends' substance use; (4) perceived vulnerability; (5) substance behavior
willingness; and (6) substance use.
Results show that subjects (Ss) reported some substance use by peers,
with smoking being more prevalent than drinking or drug usage. Ss' primary caregiver communicated about the
3 kinds of substances approximately equally.
Absolute risk perceptions mediated the relations between: (1) parental
communication about substances; (2) peer substance use and risk-taking
tendency; and (3) subsequent adolescent use.
Comparative risk perceptions, however, were only weakly related to these
3 predictors, and did not predict subsequent use. Behavioral willingness mediated the relation
between risk perceptions and behavior.