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TEEN DEVIANCE: ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN BIOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR | |
| Contact: Margaret Hanson Phone: 604/225-0099 Email: hansonm@psych.ubc.ca Embargoed until: March 6, 2004 |
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Peer pressure and family troubles may not be the only factors motivating teens who push, or break the rules. New research suggests there is a link between resting biological levels and deviant teen behavior. University of British Columbia psychologists Margaret Hanson, B.A., and Edith Chen, Ph.D., found that adolescents with low resting pulse rates and blood pressures reported more alcohol and cigarette use, and engaged in more risk-taking behaviors, such as shoplifting, than teens with higher resting biological levels. The team's findings are based on data collected from a sample of 115 teenagers from St. Louis, Missouri between the ages of 16 and 19. The teens reported the number and frequency of substances they used and the risky behaviors they had participated in within 6 months leading up to the study. Resting biological levels, including blood pressure and pulse rate, were also recorded. The results show a possible link between adolescents with low resting biological levels and the desire to engage in risky behavior. The team thinks these teens may deliberately seek out risk in order to feel a "rush," or increase in arousal - an arousal that other people with higher resting pulse rates and blood pressures attain without participating in deviant acts. The propensity for teens with low resting biological levels to engage in health-compromising behaviors holds true across different genders, races, and socio-economic groups. However, because information about health behaviors and biological levels was gathered at the same time, an alternative explanation is equally plausible; engaging in risky behaviors may lower resting biological levels. Overall, this finding offers additional possibilities about why some teens may be motivated to push or break the rules. Results from the study will be presented at the American Psychosomatic Society annual meeting, held March 2-6 in Orlando, FL. | |
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Psychosomatic Medicine is the official peer-reviewed journal of the American Psychosomatic Society, published bimonthly. For information about the journal, contact Vicki White, Managing Editor for Manuscript Production,
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