It has long been assumed that the cavalier behavior of teenagers–driving too fast, engaging in unprotected sex, dabbling in illicit drugs–is due in part to their characteristic disregard for mortality. Teens, as any beleaguered parent of one can attest, usually operate under the presumption that they know it all and will live forever.
Or, do they? A new study published in the July issue of the journal Pediatrics would suggest precisely the opposite. For some teens, at least, their reckless, sometimes life-endangering choices are fueled not by feelings of being bulletproof, but by the belief that they’re doomed to die young anyway.
