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Journal Article•DOI•

Peer influence on risk taking, risk preference, and risky decision making in adolescence and adulthood: an experimental study.

Margo Gardner1, Laurence Steinberg1•
Temple University1
01 Jul 2005-Developmental Psychology (American Psychological Association)-Vol. 41, Iss: 4, pp 625-635
TL;DR: The idea that adolescents are more inclined toward risky behavior and risky decision making than are adults and that peer influence plays an important role in explaining risky behavior during adolescence is supported.
Abstract: In this study, 306 individuals in 3 age groups--adolescents (13-16), youths (18-22), and adults (24 and older)--completed 2 questionnaire measures assessing risk preference and risky decision making, and 1 behavioral task measuring risk taking. Participants in each age group were randomly assigned to complete the measures either alone or with 2 same-aged peers. Analyses indicated that (a) risk taking and risky decision making decreased with age; (b) participants took more risks, focused more on the benefits than the costs of risky behavior, and made riskier decisions when in peer groups than alone; and (c) peer effects on risk taking and risky decision making were stronger among adolescents and youths than adults. These findings support the idea that adolescents are more inclined toward risky behavior and risky decision making than are adults and that peer influence plays an important role in explaining risky behavior during adolescence.

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Citations
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Journal Article•DOI•
A Social Neuroscience Perspective on Adolescent Risk-Taking.

[...]

Laurence Steinberg1•
Temple University1
01 Mar 2008-Developmental Review
TL;DR: This article proposes a framework for theory and research on risk-taking that is informed by developmental neuroscience, and finds that changes in the brain's cognitive control system - changes which improve individuals' capacity for self-regulation - occur across adolescence and young adulthood.

2,857 citations

Cites background or methods from "Peer influence on risk taking, risk..."

  • ...Moreover, higher levels of risk-taking among adolescents versus adults have been reported in studies of females as well as males (Gardner & Steinberg, 2005)....

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  • ...E-mail address: lds@temple.edu....

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  • ...…to impose regulatory control over impulsive and risky behavior, even in early adolescence; recall that in our video driving game study, when individuals were alone we found no age differences in risk-taking between adolescents who averaged 14 and adults who averaged 34 (Gardner & Steinberg, 2005)....

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  • ...…which we show that gains in self-reported resistance to peer influence continue at least until 18 (Steinberg & Monahan, 2007), and that the actual impact of the presence of peers on risky behavior is still evident among college undergraduates averaging 20 years in age (Gardner & Steinberg, 2005)....

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  • ...…during adolescence, we conducted an experiment in which adolescents (mean age 14), youths (mean age 20), and adults (mean age 34) were randomly assigned to complete a battery of computerized tasks under one of two conditions: alone or in the presence of two friends (Gardner & Steinberg, 2005)....

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Journal Article•DOI•
The Adolescent Brain

[...]

B. J. Casey1, Rebecca M. Jones1, Todd A. Hare2•
Cornell University1, California Institute of Technology2
01 Mar 2008-Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
TL;DR: Evidence is provided that there is a heightened responsiveness to incentives and socioemotional contexts during this time, when impulse control is still relatively immature, which suggests differential development of bottom‐up limbic systems to top‐down control systems during adolescence as compared to childhood and adulthood.
Abstract: Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by suboptimal decisions and actions that are associated with an increased incidence of unintentional injuries, violence, substance abuse, unintended pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases. Traditional neurobiological and cognitive explanations for adolescent behavior have failed to account for the nonlinear changes in behavior observed during adolescence, relative to both childhood and adulthood. This review provides a biologically plausible model of the neural mechanisms underlying these nonlinear changes in behavior. We provide evidence from recent human brain imaging and animal studies that there is a heightened responsiveness to incentives and socioemotional contexts during this time, when impulse control is still relatively immature. These findings suggest differential development of bottom-up limbic systems, implicated in incentive and emotional processing, to top-down control systems during adolescence as compared to childhood and adulthood. This developmental pattern may be exacerbated in those adolescents prone to emotional reactivity, increasing the likelihood of poor outcomes.

2,660 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
Age differences in sensation seeking and impulsivity as indexed by behavior and self-report: evidence for a dual systems model.

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Laurence Steinberg1, Dustin Albert1, Elizabeth Cauffman2, Marie T. Banich3, Sandra Graham4, Jennifer L. Woolard5 •
Temple University1, University of California, Irvine2, University of Colorado Boulder3, University of California, Los Angeles4, Georgetown University5
01 Nov 2008-Developmental Psychology
TL;DR: Age differences in sensation seeking and impulsivity in a socioeconomically and ethnically diverse sample of 935 individuals between the ages of 10 and 30 are examined, showing a curvilinear pattern and suggesting Heightened vulnerability to risk taking in middle adolescence may be due to the combination of relatively higher inclinations to seek excitement and relatively immature capacities for self-control.
Abstract: It has been hypothesized that sensation seeking and impulsivity, which are often conflated, in fact develop along different timetables and have different neural underpinnings, and that the difference in their timetables helps account for heightened risk taking during adolescence. In order to test these propositions, the authors examined age differences in sensation seeking and impulsivity in a socioeconomically and ethnically diverse sample of 935 individuals between the ages of 10 and 30, using self-report and behavioral measures of each construct. Consistent with the authors' predictions, age differences in sensation seeking, which are linked to pubertal maturation, follow a curvilinear pattern, with sensation seeking increasing between 10 and 15 and declining or remaining stable thereafter. In contrast, age differences in impulsivity, which are unrelated to puberty, follow a linear pattern, with impulsivity declining steadily from age 10 on. Heightened vulnerability to risk taking in middle adolescence may be due to the combination of relatively higher inclinations to seek excitement and relatively immature capacities for self-control that are typical of this period of development.

1,275 citations

Cites background or methods from "Peer influence on risk taking, risk..."

  • ...The absence of age differences in performance on the Stoplight task after middle adolescence is of particular interest in light of findings reported by Gardner and Steinberg (2005) , who examined age differences in performance on a similar video driving game....

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  • ...…groups of young adults: (a) individuals of traditional college age (who in some studies of decision making behave in ways similar to adolescents; Gardner & Steinberg, 2005); (b) individuals who are no longer adolescents but who still are at an age during which brain maturation is continuing,…...

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  • ...We developed a computerized driving game for this program of research based on a modification of the “Chicken” game used by Gardner and Steinberg (2005)....

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  • ...The absence of age differences in performance on the Stoplight task after middle adolescence is of particular interest in light of findings reported by Gardner and Steinberg (2005), who examined age differences in performance on a similar video driving game....

    [...]

  • ...Stoplight. We developed a computerized driving game for this program of research based on a modification of the “Chicken” game used by Gardner and Steinberg (2005) ....

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Journal Article•DOI•
Age Differences in Resistance to Peer Influence

[...]

Laurence Steinberg1, Kathryn C. Monahan1•
Temple University1
01 Nov 2007-Developmental Psychology
TL;DR: Results show that across all demographic groups, resistance to peer influences increases linearly between ages 14 and 18, and there is little evidence for growth in this capacity between ages 10 and 14 or between 18 and 30.
Abstract: Prior research describes the development of susceptibility to peer pressure in adolescence as following an inverted U-shaped curve, increasing during early adolescence, peaking around age 14, and declining thereafter. This pattern, however, is derived mainly from studies that specifically examined peer pressure to engage in antisocial behavior. In the present study, age differences and developmental change in resistance to peer influence were assessed using a new self-report instrument that separates susceptibility to peer pressure from willingness to engage in antisocial activity. Data from four ethnically and socioeconomically diverse samples comprising more than 3,600 males and females between the ages of 10 and 30 were pooled from one longitudinal and two cross-sectional studies. Results show that across all demographic groups, resistance to peer influences increases linearly between ages 14 and 18. In contrast, there is little evidence for growth in this capacity between ages 10 and 14 or between 18 and 30. Middle adolescence is an especially significant period for the development of the capacity to stand up for what one believes and resist the pressures of one's peers to do otherwise.

1,252 citations

Cites background from "Peer influence on risk taking, risk..."

  • ...Although there has been some research examining age differences in peer influence susceptibility using indicators other than self-report (e.g., Gardner & Steinberg, 2005; Table 4 Effects of Gender, Ethnicity, and SES as Independent Covariates in Resistance to Peer Influence Growth Models...

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  • ...Indeed, one recent experimental study found that exposure to peers during a risk-taking task doubled the amount of risky behavior among middle adolescents, increased it by 50% among college undergraduates, and had no impact at all among adults ( Gardner & Steinberg, 2005 )....

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Journal Article•DOI•
Risk Taking in Adolescence New Perspectives From Brain and Behavioral Science

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Laurence Steinberg1•
Temple University1
01 Apr 2007-Current Directions in Psychological Science
TL;DR: In this paper, a perspective on adolescent risk taking grounded in developmental neuroscience is presented, which suggests that changing the contexts in which risky behavior occurs may be more successful than changing the way adolescents think about risk, and suggests that educational interventions designed to change adolescents' knowledge, beliefs, or attitudes have been largely ineffective.
Abstract: Trying to understand why adolescents and young adults take more risks than younger or older individuals do has challenged psychologists for decades. Adolescents' inclination to engage in risky behavior does not appear to be due to irrationality, delusions of invulnerability, or ignorance. This paper presents a perspective on adolescent risk taking grounded in developmental neuroscience. According to this view, the temporal gap between puberty, which impels adolescents toward thrill seeking, and the slow maturation of the cognitive-control system, which regulates these impulses, makes adolescence a time of heightened vulnerability for risky behavior. This view of adolescent risk taking helps to explain why educational interventions designed to change adolescents' knowledge, beliefs, or attitudes have been largely ineffective, and suggests that changing the contexts in which risky behavior occurs may be more successful than changing the way adolescents think about risk.

1,230 citations

Cites background from "Peer influence on risk taking, risk..."

  • ...In one of our lab’s studies, for instance, the presence of peers more than doubled the number of risks teenagers took in a video driving game and increased risk taking by 50% among college undergraduates but had no effect at all among adults (Gardner & Steinberg, 2005; see Fig....

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References
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Reference Book•DOI•
Handbook of adolescent psychology

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Richard M. Lerner, Laurence Steinberg
30 Oct 2009
TL;DR: The study of and interest in adolescence in the field of psychology and related fields continues to grow, necessitating an expanded revision of this seminal work as discussed by the authors, with contributions from the leading researchers.
Abstract: The study of and interest in adolescence in the field of psychology and related fields continues to grow, necessitating an expanded revision of this seminal work. This multidisciplinary handbook, edited by the premier scholars in the field, Richard Lerner and Laurence Steinberg, and with contributions from the leading researchers, reflects the latest empirical work and growth in the field.

2,001 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders: Risk Factors and Successful Interventions

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Carl-Gunnar Janson, Rolf Loeber, David P. Farrington
01 Jul 1999-Contemporary Sociology

1,251 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
The vicissitudes of autonomy in early adolescence.

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Laurence Steinberg1, Susan B. Silverberg•
University of Wisconsin-Madison1
01 Aug 1986-Child Development
TL;DR: For most boys and girls, the transition from childhood into adolescence is marked more by a trading of dependency on parents for dependency on peers, rather than straightforward and unidimensional growth in autonomy as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: A sample of 865 10-16-year-olds from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds completed a questionnaire battery concerning 3 aspects of autonomy: emotional autonomy in relationship with parents, resistance to peer pressure, and the subjective sense of self-reliance. The observed patterns of relations among the measures cast doubt on the notion that autonomy is a unidimensional trait manifested similarly across a variety of situations. For most boys and girls, the transition from childhood into adolescence is marked more by a trading of dependency on parents for dependency on peers, rather than straightforward and unidimensional growth in autonomy. Moreover, contrary to long-standing notions about the greater salience of autonomy to adolescent males than to females, girls score higher than boys on all 3 measures of autonomy at all age levels.

1,187 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
Reckless behavior in adolescence: A developmental perspective

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Jeffrey Jensen Arnett1•
University of Missouri1
01 Dec 1992-Developmental Review
TL;DR: In this article, a developmental theory of reckless behavior among adolescents is presented, in which sensation seeking and adolescent egocentrism are especially prominent factors, and factors that may be responsible for the decline of reckless behaviour with age are discussed.

939 citations

"Peer influence on risk taking, risk..." refers background in this paper

  • ...For example, adolescents are more likely than adults to drive recklessly, to drive while intoxicated, to use varied illicit substances, to have unprotected sex, and to engage in both minor and more serious antisocial behavior (Arnett, 1992)....

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Journal Article•DOI•
Risk Taking in Adolescence: What Changes, and Why?

[...]

Laurence Steinberg1•
Temple University1
01 Jun 2004-Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
TL;DR: The present analysis suggests that the greater propensity of adolescents to take risks is not due to age differences in risk perception or appraisal, but to age Differences in psychosocial factors that influence self‐regulation.
Abstract: Extant studies of age differences in cognitive processes relevant to risk taking and decision making, such as risk perception and risk appraisal, indicate few significant age differences in factors that might explain why adolescents engage in more risk taking than adults The present analysis suggests that the greater propensity of adolescents to take risks is not due to age differences in risk perception or appraisal, but to age differences in psychosocial factors that influence self-regulation It is argued that adolescence is a period of heightened vulnerability to risk taking because of a disjunction between novelty and sensation seeking (both of which increase dramatically at puberty) and the development of self-regulatory competence (which does not fully mature until early adulthood) This disjunction is biologically driven, normative, and unlikely to be remedied through educational interventions designed to change adolescents' perception, appraisal, or understanding of risk Interventions should begin from the premise that adolescents are inherently more likely than adults to take risks, and should focus on reducing the harm associated with risk-taking behavior

899 citations

Related Papers (5)
A Social Neuroscience Perspective on Adolescent Risk-Taking.

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Age Differences in Resistance to Peer Influence

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01 Nov 2007-Developmental Psychology
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The Adolescent Brain

[...]

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B. J. Casey, Rebecca M. Jones, Todd A. Hare
Age differences in sensation seeking and impulsivity as indexed by behavior and self-report: evidence for a dual systems model.

[...]

01 Nov 2008-Developmental Psychology
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