Australian and korean adolescents' perceived health risk

The current study identified the differences in health-risk perceptions between a random sample of 701 Australian and 874 Korean adolescents in Grades 8 to 1.2 who were asked to participate in a survey designed to assess their perceptions of health risk. To measure the health risks, an English version of the Self-Other Risk Judgments Profile was translated into Korean, and then the English and Korean versions were separately given the two groups. Analysis identified significant mean differences between the two groups in ratings both of risks they had and ratings of risks for others. Korean adolescents perceived their likelihood of a variety of self-health risks as substantially lower than the Australian group. Also, they rated the chances of most health risks happening to them as significantly lower than those of others in the same age compared with Australian peers.