EFN

According to a new research 15% of US teens think they will die young. The new research disputes the widely held notion that teens underestimate the dangers affiliated with dangerous behaviors since they think they are invincible.

The study published in Pediatrics, reported that 15% of teenagers expect an early death for themselves. This survey of 20,000 kids, might not be that shocking when considering the rate of drug use, suicides, sexually transmitted diseases, however it goes against the conventional understanding that young adults engage in dangerous conduct due to overconfidence and a feeling of invulnerability.

Many fatalistic young people were more on target than others. Minority teenagers were much more likely to anticipate an early death, with 29 percent of Native Americans, 26 percent of blacks, and 21 percent of Hispanics anticipating to die young, compared with 10 percent of whites. The fatalistic teens were also more likely to be poor. Minorities as well as poor people are far more likely to have health problems than someone who is white and well off.

Such a fatalistic attitude makes those teenagers far more likely to engage in risky, even life-threatening behaviors.

“Thus, they develop a sense of hopelessness and a feeling that ‘Hey, not much is at stake, I’m going to die anyway,’ so [they] engage in risky behaviors,” said Iris Borowsky, M.D., Ph.D.

How can these teens be helped? Experts say it is all about prevention as well as intervention, determining why teens feel hopeless, and reassuring them adults in their lives do care.

“Parents who are involved, know what’s going in school, come to your extracirricular activities, tell you they love you every day, that matters,” Borowsky said.