OPTIMISTIC BIAS IN ADOLESCENTS WITH HEMOPHILIA

Abstract

A general view of adolescents holds that they perceive themselves as invulnerable to harm, being at less risk than peers for a negative outcome from a designated behavior. This study investigated factors which may be associated with this bias in an adolescent hemophiliac population. It was hypothesized that adolescents would demonstrate an optimistic bias, which would vary depending upon the comparative reference group and the relevance of the health risk items to their disease. Subjects were 56 adolescent hemophiliacs from 10-19 yrs. (X=13.75 yrs, S.D=2.17) who were at camp. The protocol asked them to make comparative risk judgments (i.e., the likelihood of a negative outcome) on a list of health related items using 2 different reference groups (other boys in same grade [A], other boys with hemophilia [B]). Items were either DISEASE-RELEVANT (REL=car accident, fistfight, hiking, sports, bike/skateboard, ankle/knee, swinming) or GENERIC (GEN=marijuana, alcohol, flu, caries). Results demonstrate a bias. The optimistic bias differed depending upon the comparative reference group (bias [B], p<.0001; bias [A], nonsignificant) and varied with respect to the relevance of items to hemophilia (GEN [A]&[B], p's<.001; REL [B], p<.001; REL [A], nonsignificant). These adolescent hemophiliacs acknowledged that their risk for negative outcomes was greater when comparing themselves to others [A] on only 3 of the REL items, yet when they compared themselves to other hemophiliacs [B] they were optimistically biased on 8 of 11 items (i.e., “it won't happen to me”). The concept of the invulnerable adolescent may be disease and reference group specific.