Voices on risk-taking : Young women and men in an existential and social world

•   The present study was influenced by existential - and gender aspects on young people's everyday lives with the aim to shed light on the complexity of the phenomenon of risk-taking, the meaning and purpose of adolescent risk-taking in a traditional sense (e.g. smoking and drug using) and in noisy environments (e.g. discotheques and rock concerts). The intention was to identify possible new ways of understanding young people's experiences and apprehensions about different risk behaviours by the use of qualitative method; The Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Sixteen adolescents (8 men/8 women, aged 15-19) were interviewed, 4 in separate interviews and 12 in focus groups. The analysis revealed two dimensions: "Social identity" and "Existential identity" and six superordinate themes of the phenomena of risk-taking. The two dimensions and the six super-ordinate themes were equal for women and men, while the sub-themes were found to be gender-related. The interviewees' responses revealed social (gender) - and existential considerations which affected the participants in many areas of their daily lives. The study implies that one of the challenges for the preventive strategies is to be able to talk about risk-taking in terms of both threat and development, and not as a case of either or. 

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Risk-taking

adolescents

social identity

existential identity

Psychology

Psykologi

Psychology

Psykologi

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

rap (ämneskategori)