Forskningsrapport Högskolan Väst 2010:03 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 subthemes 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. Bohlin, M. Young voices on risk-taking 2 2 Voices on risk-taking -Young women and men in an existential and social world Bohlin, Margareta., Sorbring, Emma. & Erlandsson, Soly Young men and women constantly receive messages about how to adapt their behavior to norms in society from the media, school, health care services and parents. Nevertheless, activities that, from an adult perspective, present a risk to adolescent health are not always the same as adolescents’ own perceptions of risky activities (Gullone & Moore, 2000; Siegel & Cousins, 1994). As professionals investigating risk-taking behaviours we tend to take an adult perspective on young people’s lives. The contribution of this study was therefore to emphasize the experiences and the perceptions of young people by allowing them to raise their own voices in dialogues with the researcher. Testing boundaries and risk-taking are inherent elements in young people’s lives and allow them to develop. However, it is the balance between reasonable risk-taking, and risk-taking that puts health at risk that, for many young people, is difficult to achieve. Many young people are not willing to restrict their freedom and their lives to an extent that would benefit their health partly due to the difficulty to absorb and conform to all of the warnings and rules in the society. Further, adolescence is a time of transition when freedom is rather limited. Meanwhile, a glimpse of the next phase in life with increased freedom takes place defined as emerging adulthood (EA). EA is a phase in between adolescence and adulthood characterized as an age of instability, together with a rather self-focused identity (Arnett, 2006). According to van Exel, de Graaf and Brouwer (2006), future or current health is not of major concern to adolescents since they feel physically healthy, are happy and satisfied with their lives, or simply do not care. In general, young people Bohlin, M. Young voices on risk-taking 3 3 have positive attitudes towards risks (i.e. pro-risk behavior) and they might engage in risky activities since this provides them with certain privileges (Siegel and Cousins, 1994). Those having positive attitudes are those who more frequently engage in risk-taking activities, suffer more from the consequences and are less inclined to use protective strategies (Benton, Benton & Downey, 2006). Attitudes seem to explain more variance than either gender or protective strategies but men are more inclined to take risks than women and, since protective strategies are used more frequently by women, they are thus in less danger of harm (ibid). The feeling of powerlessness is central to humans due to difficulties to manage our cultural, social and economic problems (May, 1981). Risk behavior can be seen as a way for adolescents to fill a life that is perceived as being existentially empty. Adolescence is a time filled with conflicts, many of which are reminders of existential questions, such as levels of perceived freedom, options, awareness of death and anxiety (Ellsworth, 1999). An existential perspective on violence and risk behavior supplies the possible foundation of a new understanding. Who am I, what am I going to do with my life, how will I manage on my own? These are questions that revolve around the concept of identity, and arise in adolescence. Adolescents seek answers in many areas in life and build, along with this, their identity (Santrock, 2004). This is also a time when music preference and taste are determined (North & Hargreaves, 1995). Adolescents have normative expectations regarding the characteristics and norms of people with certain musical tastes. People who enjoy particular musical genres are valued as having high social prestige and are expected to possess more positive social traits and even believed to become more successful in life (North & Hargreaves, 1999). According to Ellsworth (1999), the dark lyrics in some genres of music, the way in which young people dress, and lack of interest in their future and their own survival can be understood within an existential framework constituting youth. Adolescents often expose themselves to loud music when they engage in other risky activities, Bohlin, M. Young voices on risk-taking 4 4 such as partying, drinking and smoking and it is played loud in order to make the experience intense and powerful (Arnett, 1992; Bohlin & Erlandsson, 2007; Wang, 2001). However, music and high levels of sound have not traditionally been associated with risk-taking behaviors. There seems to be an overall variation between the sexes as regards how they reason about risky sound exposure and methods of prevention. A study including Swedish female and male adolescent students revealed that, even though young women judge a number of risky situations to be more dangerous compared to young men, they nevertheless behave in the same way in traditionally risky environments and noisy environments (Bohlin & Erlandsson, 2007). Compared to young men, young women experience music at discotheques and rock concerts as more hazardous, although they spend just as much time in such environments as their male counterparts. Talking to strangers and being out late at night are also considered to be more risky by women, even though they are out late and converse with strangers equally as often as men. Ekervald (2003) argues that, today, women participate in risky activities that have traditionally been male domains. This contradicts certain previous research which suggests that women judge risky situations as more dangerous than men and that they don’t participate in them to the same extent (Gullone & Moore 2000 b; Byrnes, Miller & Schafer, 1999). Young women, more so than men, respond with anxiety and worry about occasional hearing-related symptoms and also use hearing protection to a greater extent (Olsen Widén & Erlandsson, 2004a; 2004b). Interviews reveal that young men tend to assume a sense of invulnerability in order to follow social norms of masculinity. At the same time, it is socially acceptable for young women to be vulnerable by demonstrating concern such as, for example, by using hearing protection or removing themselves from sources of loud noise (threat) at discotheques or rock concerts (Widén & Erlandsson, 2006). Risk behavior among men seems to be related to an orientation towards their social peer group, whilst women’s relationships with parents are prominent in their risk behavior. Depressive moods Bohlin, M. Young voices on risk-taking 5 5 in females were shown to be associated with parental factors, although there was only a weak association to risk-taking (Keren & Ben-Zur, 2007). Theories about gender are often based on a social constructive view of the world, meaning that individuals collectively create and reproduce norms and values in society. From a social constructivist perspective, gender is regarded as a social category where individuals actively contribute to social influences that may have implications in a larger sense (Giddens, 1991). People are expected to fit into stable gender roles, have fixed gender-related qualities and physical attributes, and are not supposed to change between “feminine” and “masculine” expressions (Deaux & Kite, 1987; Skeggs, 1997; Witley & Ægisdóttir, 2000). A genderand social constructive perspective on young people’s everyday lives has influenced the present study. The aim was 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). Furthermore, the intention was to identify possible new ways of understanding young people’s experiences and apprehensions about different risk behaviors that might be related to norms and gender roles in contemporary society.