Optimism in children's judgments of health and environmental risks.

Two studies of 6th graders (244 and 73 Ss, respectively) examined optimism and the degree of differentiation in perceived risks across diverse health, lifestyle, and environmental problems. Findings revealed perceptions of relative invulnerability and highly differentiated risk assessments. The strongest levels of optimism emerged for controllable and stigmatizing events such as illicit drugs, smoking, and AIDS. The effects of gender, assessment context, and methodological variations were minimal. Implications for health-promoting interventions with school-age children, the need for developmental information about risk perception processes, and the difficulty of distinguishing realistic from biased optimism are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)