The Conceptualization and Communication of Risk Among Rural Appalachian Adolescents

Abstract

This study uses a meta-theoretical perspective for examining risk perceptions and behavior in the rural Appalachian cultural context, an area that remains largely unexplored. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with 113 rural adolescents to describe how youth conceptualize risk and how risk is communicated in the rural environment. Analyses revealed adolescents viewed behavior as risky when they had personal or vicarious experiences resulting in a loss of control or physical harm. Elements of the rural Appalachian culture including activities, familism, and community ties can prevent and promote adolescent risk taking in various forms. This study demonstrates the conceptualization of risk and messages about risk are culturally situated and communicatively devised and enacted. The implications of these findings for adolescent risk prevention programs are discussed.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the students and schools who participated in this study. They are also grateful to the other members of their research team for their involvement with this project (M. Colby, T. Deas, A. Dossett, J. Graham, and J. Pettigrew). The authors thank Dr. Prabu David for his helpful critique of an earlier version of this article. This publication was supported by Grant Numbers R01DA021670 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to The Pennsylvania State University (Michael Hecht, principal investigator). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.