Children's risk preferences vary across sexes, social contexts, and cultures

People exhibit more risk-prone behaviors when together with peers than when in private. The interplay of social context effects and other variables that alter human risk preferences (i.e., age, sex, or culture) remains poorly understood. Here, we explored risk preferences among Namibian Hai||om and Ovambo children (N = 144; AgeRange = 6-10 years). Participants chose between risky and safe options in private or during peer presence. In a third condition, children collaborated with peers before their risk preferences were assessed in those peers' presence. Children from both societies were risk-averse, but Hai||om children showed greater risk aversion than their Ovambo counterparts. Across cultures and ages, boys were less averse to risks than girls. This effect was most pronounced during peer presence, whereas collaboration did not additionally affect risk preferences. These results suggest a dynamic interplay of individual, social, and cultural factors shaping children's risk preferences.

Environmental statistics and experience shape risk-taking across adolescence

Adolescents are often portrayed as reckless risk-takers because of their immature brains. Recent research has cast doubt on this portrayal, identifying the environment as a moderator of risk-taking. However, the key features of environments that drive risk-taking behaviors are often underspecified. We call for greater attention to the environment by drawing on research showing that its statistical structure impacts future risk-taking as people learn from outcomes they experience after taking a risk. This opinion shows that adolescents are unlikely to experience harm from many risks because environmental statistics are skewed and favor safe experiences. Environmental statistics and experience suggest entry points for policy interventions by carefully timing risk warnings and leveraging peers' potential to shape the statistics of rewarding experiences.

Multilevel longitudinal relations among impulsive traits, positive expectancies, and binge drinking from late adolescence to adulthood: A developmental test of acquired preparedness

BACKGROUND

The Acquired Preparedness Model (APM) posits that highly impulsive individuals develop stronger positive alcohol expectancies, which in turn predicts heavier drinking. However, most acquired preparedness studies have focused solely on between-person relations, despite the theory suggesting that there are potential developmental-specific within-person relations. Thus, the current study tested the APM from late adolescence into adulthood, while disaggregating within- from between-person relations.

METHODS

Data come from a multigenerational study of familial alcohol use disorder (N=653) spanning three waves 5 years apart. Participants reported their lack of conscientiousness, sensation seeking, positive alcohol expectancies, and binge drinking at each wave. First, missing data techniques were used to create a "ghost timepoint," allowing the specification of four developmental-specific timepoints representing late adolescence (age 18 to 20), emerging adulthood (age 21 to 25), young adulthood (age 26 to 29), and adulthood (age 30 to 39). Second, a Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model tested between-person and within-person relations among variables.

RESULTS

At the between-person level, lower conscientiousness and sensation seeking were correlated with higher positive expectancies, and positive expectancies were correlated with more binge drinking. There were no within-person prospective relations among conscientiousness, sensation seeking, and positive expectancies. However, within-person increases in lack of conscientiousness during late adolescence predicted within-person increases in emerging adult binge drinking, and within-person increases in late adolescent and emerging adult binge drinking predicted within-person increases in lack of conscientiousness during emerging and young adulthood, respectively. Similarly, within-person increases in late adolescent and young adult sensation seeking predicted within-person increases in binge drinking during emerging adulthood and adulthood, respectively. Binge drinking did not reciprocally predict sensation seeking.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest that acquired preparedness effects may be between persons rather than within persons. However, several within-person developmental-specific relations among conscientiousness, sensation seeking, and binge drinking were observed, outside of expectancies. Findings are discussed in terms of theory and prevention.

Development in uncertain contexts: An ecologically informed approach to understanding decision-making during adolescence

Adolescence is a period of development in which youth have new opportunities for decision-making, often in situations where they may have little information or experience to guide their choices. Thus, learning to make decisions under uncertainty is a key challenge during adolescence. To date, researchers have applied economics formalisms to understand the processes that support adolescents in making decisions under two distinct forms of uncertainty: economic risk and economic ambiguity. Economic risk is when the probabilities of outcomes are known. Economic ambiguity is when the probabilities of outcomes are unknown or unknowable. This research has led to foundational knowledge about the basic processes involved in adolescent decision-making, but many experimental paradigms that dissociate economic risk and ambiguity rely on monetary or point-based choices. Given that adolescence is a period of development characterized by a changing social environment, it remains unclear whether the processes that adolescents engage during decision-making on monetary or point-based experimental tasks generalize to their day-to-day experiences in the real world. In this brief piece, we explore how developmental research applying economics formalisms can be bolstered by research on youth's social environments to advance our understanding of decision-making in adolescence. First, we review developmental research by using economic uncertainty paradigms. Next, we highlight research on adolescents' social environments to provide examples of the day-to-day choices that adolescents face among their peers and in their broader communities. Finally, we propose directions for future research integrating these separate approaches to create a more nuanced, ecologically informed understanding of adolescent decision-making.

The Importance of Addressing Multilevel Transactional Influences of Childhood Obesity to Inform Future Health Behavior Interventions

We provide a transactional model of health for understanding the early risk of obesity in youth. This model argues that positive health is construed through the choices and actions that youth take within the range of resources and constraints of their biological and contextual situations across time. Social, cognitive, affective, and behavioral regulatory/motivational processes within the child mediate the relation between life experiences and health outcomes and obesity pathways are influenced by cumulative risk or protective processes for health promotion/compromising behaviors influencing health. We provide evidence-based examples of multilevel approaches to obesity prevention and treatment and highlight recommendations for future health behavior interventions.

Explore with Me: Peer Observation Decreases Risk-Taking but Increases Exploration Tendencies across Adolescence

It has been assumed that adolescents increase risk-taking tendencies when peers are present but findings on experimental decision-making have been inconclusive. Most studies focus on risk-taking tendencies, ignoring the effects peer presence can exert over other cognitive processes involved in decision-making, as well as any other underlying developmental and individual differences. In the present study, the trial-by-trial choice behavior was analyzed in a task in which adolescents adjust to dynamically changing risk probabilities. Using Bayesian modeling, the study aimed to infer about peer presence effects on risk-taking tendencies but also on reactions to, exploration of, and learning from positive and negative outcomes of risk-taking. 184 pre- to late adolescents (M = 14.09 years, min = 8.59, max = 18.97, SD = 2.95, 47% female) conducted the Balloon Analog Risk Task under two conditions: Once alone and once in the presence of a (non-existent) peer observing them virtually. Findings revealed that (a) peer observation reduced risk-taking but increased exploration tendencies and (b) that individual differences modulated this effect. Especially female pre-adolescents increased their openness to explore different choice outcomes when a peer observed their behavior. These results support the assumption that the occurrence and direction of peer influences on risk-taking depend on a person-environment interaction, emphasizing the dynamic role peers play in adolescent risk-taking.

Multidimensional Impulsive Personality Traits Mediate the Effect of Parent Substance Use Disorder on Adolescent Alcohol and Cannabis Use

Theory suggests that behavioral undercontrol mediates the effect of parental substance disorder on offspring substance use, but no studies have tested multidimensional impulsive personality traits as mechanisms of risk. Adolescents (N = 392; 48% female) from a multigenerational study of familial alcohol disorder self-reported impulsive personality traits via the UPPS-P (Mage = 16.09; Range = 13-19) and alcohol/cannabis frequency one year later. The UPPS-P assesses negative and positive urgency (i.e., rash action in a negative or positive mood state), lack of premeditation (i.e., lack of planning/forethought), lack of perseverance (i.e., inability to finish tedious/boring tasks), and sensation seeking (i.e., thrill seeking/risk taking). Parent substance disorder was assessed via diagnostic interviews. Two-part hurdle models tested predictors of any substance use (i.e., binary part) and frequency of use (i.e., continuous part). Parent substance disorder was indirectly associated with any alcohol/cannabis use (binary part) and higher cannabis frequency (continuous part) through negative urgency. Parental substance disorder was associated with higher alcohol frequency through a lack of premeditation. Sensation seeking was associated with any alcohol/cannabis use but unrelated to parental substance disorder. Despite indirect effects, strong effects of parental substance disorder on substance use remained. The findings are discussed in terms of theory and public health implications.

Adolescent decision making: A decade in review

Research in the past decade has highlighted the nuances of adolescent decision making. In this review article, we summarize several themes evident in the field of developmental science including the redefinition of adolescence and the ways in which adolescent decision-making capabilities converge with or diverge from those of adults. While the decision-making process is similar for adolescents and adults in contexts that encourage deliberation and reflection, adolescents and adults differ in contexts which preclude deliberation vis-à-vis high emotional arousal. We also discuss the reconceptualization of adolescent behavior, including risk taking, as adaptive. That is, characteristics of adolescence, including impulsivity, the importance of peers, and novelty seeking, are normative, evolutionarily advantageous, and essential for positive development. While these features manifest in negative, health-compromising ways (e.g., risky driving and criminal behavior), they also foster growth and exploration. We conclude with a discussion of potential avenues for future research.

How Fuzzy-trace Theory Predicts Development of Risky Decision Making, with Novel Extensions to Culture and Reward Sensitivity

Comprehensive meta-analyses of risky decision making in children, adolescents, and adults have revealed that age trends in disambiguated laboratory tasks confirmed fuzzy-trace theory's prediction that preference for risk decreases monotonically from childhood to adulthood. These findings are contrary to predictions of dual systems or neurobiological imbalance models. Assumptions about increasing developmental reliance on mental representations of the gist of risky options are essential to account for this developmental trend. However, dual systems theory appropriately emphasizes how cultural context changes behavioral manifestation of risk preferences across age and neurobiological imbalance models appropriately emphasize developmental changes in reward sensitivity. All of the major theories include the assumption of increasing behavioral inhibition. Here, we integrate these theoretical constructs-representation, cultural context, reward sensitivity, and behavioral inhibition-to provide a novel framework for understanding and improving risky decision making in youth. We also discuss the roles of critical tests, scientific falsification, disambiguating assessments of psychological and neurological processes, and the misuse of such concepts as ecological validity and reverse inference. We illustrate these concepts by extending fuzzy-trace theory to explain why youth are a major conduit of viral infections, including the virus that causes COVID-19. We conclude by encouraging behavioral scientists to embrace new ways of thinking about risky decision making that go beyond traditional stereotypes about adolescents and that go beyond conceptualizing ideal decision making as trading off degrees of risk and reward.

The Dark Factor of Personality and Risk-Taking

Aversive personality traits have been linked to risk-taking across various domains. Herein, we investigated whether the common core of aversive traits, the Dark Factor of Personality (D), is related to risk-taking. Whereas the conceptualizations of D (common core of aversive traits) and risk-taking (not inherently socially and/or ethically aversive) do not necessarily imply an association, several theoretical considerations do suggest a positive relation between the constructs. In three studies (overall n = 689), we linked D to various self-report measures of risk-taking (Studies 1 and 2), as well as to a behavioral risk-taking task (Study 3). Overall, D was positively (although not always statistically significantly) related to self-reported risk-taking in terms of financial, health-related, and recreational risk-taking, fearlessness, novelty sensation seeking, intensity sensation seeking, and drug use. However, we did not find an association between D and behavioral risk-taking. Our findings provide insights into the relation between aversive personality and risk-taking, but also point to inconsistencies depending on the specific nature of risk-taking studied.

An Evaluation of Dual Systems Theories of Adolescent Delinquency in a Normative Longitudinal Cohort Study of Youth

Dual systems theories of adolescent risk-taking propose that the socioemotional and self-regulation systems develop at different rates, resulting in a peak in sensation-seeking in adolescence at a time when self-regulation abilities are not yet fully mature. This “developmental imbalance” between bottom-up drives for reward and top-down control is proposed to create a period of vulnerability for high-risk behaviors such as delinquency, substance use, unprotected sex, and reckless driving. In this study, data from the Swiss longitudinal normative z-proso study (n = 1522, n = 784 male; aged 11, 13, 15, 17, and 20) were used to test whether the presence of a developmental imbalance between sensation-seeking and self-regulation is associated with trajectories of engagement in delinquency across early adolescence to adulthood. Using a latent class growth analysis of sensation-seeking, self-regulation, and delinquency, it was found that a model with 3 classes was optimal in the whole sample and male sub-sample, including one class characterized by a developmental imbalance and corresponding adolescent peak in delinquency. In females, there was no evidence for a class that could be described according to the trajectories hypothesized in dual systems theory. This study’s results support the claim that a developmental imbalance may drive an adolescent increase in delinquency. However, this applies only to a small subgroup of individuals, particularly males.

Navigating the Social Environment in Adolescence: The Role of Social Brain Development

Successful navigation of the social environment is dependent on a number of social cognitive processes, including mentalizing and resistance to peer influence. These processes continue to develop during adolescence, a time of significant social change, and are underpinned by regions of the social brain that continue to mature structurally and functionally into adulthood. In this review, we describe how mentalizing, peer influence, and emotion regulation capacities develop to aid the navigation of the social environment during adolescence. Heightened susceptibility to peer influence and hypersensitivity to social rejection in adolescence increase the likelihood of both risky and prosocial behavior in the presence of peers. Developmental differences in mentalizing and emotion regulation, and the corticosubcortical circuits that underpin these processes, might put adolescents at risk for developing mental health problems. We suggest how interventions aimed at improving prosocial behavior and emotion regulation abilities hold promise in reducing the risk of poor mental health as adolescents navigate the changes in their social environment.

Relevance of routine activities for understanding the impact of the dual systems model on binge drinking among college students

BACKGROUND

Past research has indicated that dual systems model constructs (impulsivity, sensation-seeking) are predictors of binge drinking. Further, engagement in routine unstructured social activities also predicts elevated risk for binge drinking. However, there has yet to be any research that examines the interactive effect of these constructs.

METHODS

The present study utilized a sample of 248 undergraduate students to understand the relationships between concepts on interest. A series of ordinal logistic regression models were estimated to determine the direct effects of impulsivity, sensation-seeking, and routine activities on binge drinking and also determine whether or not involvement in routine activities moderated the direct effects of either impulsivity and/or sensation-seeking on binge drinking.

RESULTS

Results indicated that lower sensation-seeking was associated with elevated binge drinking frequency. However, the interaction between routine activities and sensation-seeking indicated a positive relationship. This meant that the effects of high levels of sensation-seeking on binge drinking were exacerbated at higher levels of routine activities involvement.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings of the present study indicate that students high in sensation-seeking and engagement in unstructured socializing present great risk for high frequency binge drinking. However, students who demonstrate low levels of sensation-seeking may also present an at-risk population, as they may be using alcohol to self-medicate anhedonia symptoms.

Neural response to rewards predicts risk-taking in late but not early adolescent females

Risk-taking peaks in adolescence and reflects, in part, hyperactivity of the brain's reward system. However, it has not been established whether the association between reward-related brain activity and risk-taking varies across adolescence. The present study investigated how neural reward sensitivity is associated with laboratory risk-taking in a sample of female adolescents as a function of age. Sixty-three female adolescents ages 10-19 completed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task, a laboratory measure of risk-taking behavior, as well as a forced choice monetary gambling task while an electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. This gambling task elicits the reward positivity (RewP), a frontocentral event-related potential component that is sensitive to feedback signaling reward. We observed a negative quadratic association between age and risk-taking, such that those in early and late adolescence had lower relative risk-taking compared to mid-adolescence, with risk-taking peaking at around 15 years of age. In predicting risk-taking, we observed an interaction between age and RewP, such that reward-related brain activity was not associated with risk-taking in early adolescence but was associated with a greater propensity for risk in later adolescence. These findings suggest that for females, neural response to rewards is an important factor in predicting risk-taking only in later adolescence.

Differential Behavioral and Neural Profiles in Youth With Conduct Problems During Risky Decision-Making

Neuroimaging work has examined neural processes underlying risk taking in adolescence, yet predominantly in low-risk youth. To determine whether we can extrapolate from current neurobiological models, this functional magnetic resonance imaging study investigated risk taking and peer effects in youth with conduct problems (CP; N = 19) and typically developing youth (TD; N = 25). Results revealed higher real-life risk taking, lower risky decisions, and no peer effects on a risk-taking task in CP youth. CP youth showed greater ventral striatum (VS) activity during safe than risky decisions, whereas TD youth showed greater VS activation during risky decisions. Differential VS activity explained higher real-life risk taking in CP youth. Findings provide preliminary evidence that risk-taking behavior in youth with CD problems is characterized by differential neural patterns.

Social networks as tools for the prevention and promotion of health among youth

The emergence of information and communication technologies (ICT) has generated a number of research questions, related to their use and potential risk, but also potentials for prevention or health promotion. Online social networks have become an important source of information for users as well as a tool for social relations. As traditional social networks, they can act as vehicles to improve the health of adolescents and youth, as well as play a key role in an educational context. The aim of this work is then to explore the theoretical relevance of ICT, particularly on online social networks, on disease prevention and health promotion of communicable diseases. Literature review points out the role of online social networks, particularly in the field of sexual health, body image, especially eating habits and overweight, as well as smoking and alcohol dependence. Data allow us to understand how online social network behavior and interaction is related to their burden and interventions developed in sexual health and addiction show positive results. More efforts in body image are needed in order to use these tools for prevention and promotion of health from early age.

Is the Peer Presence Effect on Heightened Adolescent Risky Decision-Making only Present in Males?

Social neurodevelopmental imbalance models posit that peer presence causes heightened adolescent risk-taking particularly during early adolescence. Evolutionary theory suggests that these effects would be most pronounced in males. However, the small but growing number of experimental studies on peer presence effects in adolescent risky decision-making showed mixed findings, and the vast majority of such studies did not test for the above-described gender and adolescent phase moderation effects. Moreover, most of those studies did not assess the criterion validity of the employed risky decision-making tasks. The current study was designed to investigate the abovementioned hypotheses among a sample of 327 ethnically-diverse Dutch early and mid-adolescents (49.80% female; M_age = 13.61). No main effect of peer presence on the employed risky-decision making task (i.e., the stoplight game) was found. However, the results showed a gender by peer presence moderation effect. Namely, whereas boys and girls engaged in equal levels of risks when they completed the stoplight game alone, boys engaged in more risk-taking than girls when they completed this task together with two same-sex peers. In contrast, adolescent phase did not moderate peer presence effects on risk-taking. Finally, the results showed that performance on the stoplight game predicted self-reported real-world risky traffic behavior, alcohol use and delinquency. Taken together, using a validated task, the present findings demonstrate that individual differences (i.e., gender) can determine whether the social environment (i.e., peer presence) affect risk-taking in early- and mid-adolescents. The finding that performance on a laboratory risky decision-making task can perhaps help identify adolescents that are vulnerable to diverse types of heightened risk behaviors is an important finding for science as well as prevention and intervention efforts.