Research Background

Adolescence is a cultural phenomenon that results from a social and historical milieu (Steinberg, 1996). Youth marks the intersection of drive, discipline, energy, irrationality, and courage (Erikson, 1965). Youth is a time when one must negotiate conformity with deviance, and rededication with rebellion (Erikson, 1959, 1965). Adolescence is a life stage characterized by biological, social, and cognitive developmental transitions and tasks. Some of the developmental tasks of adolescence in the United States include: adapting to pubertal changes, redefining the parent-child relationship, school transitions, clarifying educational and career goals, learning to think more abstractly, spending more time with peers and less time with family, and developing intimate relationships (Steinberg, 1996). Risk-taking behaviors can also be viewed as critical for young people negotiating adolescence. It is not coincidental that participation in risky behaviors, such as binge drinking, increases at the same time that young people are negotiating these multiple transitions (Schulenberg & Maggs, 2002). During this time, adolescents experiment with new behaviors and values, testing the limits established by parents. Rates of participation in certain risk-taking behaviors, such as alcohol use, as well as the finding that participation in such behaviors often accompanies positive developmental outcomes, supports the contention that a certain level of risk-taking is normative for young people (Baumrind, 1985; Schulenberg, Maggs, & Hurrelmann, 1997; Shedler & Block, 1990). Consequently, to fully understand risk during adolescence, we must recognize and consider both risks and opportunities. What is a risk during adolescence may later become an opportunity; and what may appear to be a health risk may be interpreted as an opportunity from the adolescent’s perspective (Schulenberg et al., 1997). Further, health-promoting behaviors during adolescence are likely to result in long-term benefits (Maggs, Schulenberg, & Hurrelmann, 1997). Thus, promoting healthy exploration is essential.

The present research project is designed to move research further away from a deficit model of youth behavior that focuses on the problems of youth, and preventing the development of undesirable characteristics, and towards a model that seeks to consider when exploration and risk-taking can facilitate optimal development. To contribute to this burgeoning area of research, the present investigation focuses on youths’ ability and desire to exploration and take risks as two critical characteristics we hope young people will develop.

Research Design

Interviews

The original interview data were collected from a sample of twelve (6 female) community college students and twenty (10 female) university students. Six students identified as Latino, nine students identified as African American, 16 students identified as White, and one student identified as Asian. Participants were recruited through on-campus student organizations. Using a phenomenological perspective (van Manen, 1984), based on the premise that the most meaningful reality is what one perceives it to be, the PI interviewed students individually to theoretical saturation, about their experiences with and understanding of experimentation. Students also completed a background questionnaire and a checklist assessing how frequently they participated in a variety of experimentation behaviors.

Analyses revealed that from the perspective of college students, there is a clear distinction between experimentation and risk-taking. Students described a deliberate and functional process of experimentation. To the contrary, they described risk-taking to be less likely to be planned and more often to involve having something to lose or compromise. Further, from their perspective, substance use, alcohol use, and sexual activity, behaviors that have typically been identified as negative risk-taking, are most often purposeful, affording them positive developmental opportunities (Dworkin, 2005). Students also described a deliberate and functional process of experimenting with eight behavioral domains: academic activities, substance and alcohol use, social activities, sexual activity, intimate relationships, extracurricular activities, religion, and politics, as they worked to figure out who they are.

Focus Groups

During Spring 2003, two focus group protocols were developed from the approximately 800 pages of original interview transcripts: one to conduct focus groups with teenagers and one to conduct focus groups with parents of teenagers. Focus groups are one approach to group interviews that make use of group dynamics to elicit information on specific topics (Taylor & Bogdan, 1998). Although the group setting potentially creates a social desirability bias (Krueger, 1988), the original interview data suggest that much of young people’s experiences with exploration will exist in the context of interactions with others. Thus, focus groups may be ideal for uncovering youths’ experiences with exploration, and their parent’s understanding of these experiences. The protocols were centered around compiling an initial pool of survey items (see Instrument Development below) that could be evaluated in a focus group setting.

Focus groups were conducted in four different counties across the state of Minnesota to determine if the qualities of exploration and risk-taking identified in the individual interviews hold true for younger youth and for parents. Six focus groups were conducted with adolescents and four focus groups were conducted with parents of adolescents.

Participants were recruited with the assistance of Extension Educators across the state. Four to nine individuals participated in each focus group that lasted approximately 90 minutes. Adolescents were between the ages of 13 and 18 and parents were raising at least one adolescent between the ages of 13 and 18. Focus groups were audiotaped, and then transcribed verbatim. Participants also completed a brief background questionnaire.

Click here to view a report of the focus group data [PDF].

Instrument Development

Next, a measure of youth exploration that takes a contextual approach was developed, the Survey of Healthy Youth Exploration (SHYE). This measure was developed from the individual interviews with college students, focus groups with adolescents, focus groups with parents of adolescents, and a thorough review of the literature on exploration and risk-taking. To truly understand youth exploration, a more comprehensive measure is essential. The SHYE will provide: (1) rich descriptive information on the context in which youth exploration occurs (frequency, intensity, time of day exploration occurs, with whom exploration occurs, where exploration occurs, influence of family, influence of peers, risk involved, outcomes, etc.), and (2) begin to identify the factors that determine whether exploration is healthy and functional (i.e. promotes positive development) or whether it is simply dangerous (i.e. prevents or interferes with positive development). The SHYE has been pilot tested in one rural community.

Click here to view preliminary results of this pilot [PDF].