More risky for some than others: negative life events among young risk-takers

Professor Margaretha Järvinen from the Department of Sociology has together with Stefan Bastholm Andrade contributed to the journal Health, Risk & Society with the article ‘More risky for some than others: negative life events among young risk-takers.’

In the article, they examine how early risk behaviors are related to subsequent negative life events among young men and women from different socioeconomic backgrounds in Denmark. The authors draw on data from a survey on 15-year-olds’ drinking, smoking, cannabis use, and early sexual debut and administrative register data about negative life events such as not being in education, employment or training (NEET), crime convictions, and hospitalizations between ages 16 and 24. They use latent class analysis to divide young people into different risk groups, and individual growth curve models in an intersectional analysis of their transitions into adulthood. The article shows that for young people from upper middle class families, early risk behaviors are not associated with subsequent negative life events. However, for young people from less privileged backgrounds, early experimentation with alcohol, cigarettes, cannabis and sex is a clear predictor of negative events later in life. The article also demonstrates that the association between early risk behaviors and subsequent negative life events is stronger for young men than for young women.

Stefan Bastholm Andrade & Margaretha Järvinen, More risky for some than others: negative life events among young risk-takers, Health, Risk & Society, December 2017.