Risk-taking Behaviour in Adolescence
Posted on 26/02/2009 | 2 Comments
Teenagers are known for risk-taking, novelty seeking, reckless behaviour and impulsivity.
Risk-taking behaviour can take on many different forms, including the misuse of alcohol or drugs, engaging in unprotected sexual activity, some types of criminal activity or risky, adrenaline-producing sports like skydiving or motocross. While you may not have done all of these things, the majority of adolescents and young adults report participating in one or more risk-taking behaviours.
One reason for this is that the teenage brain is less able than the adult brain to inhibit impulsive behaviours. Adolescents become more able to control their behaviour as their brains mature, but efficient control of impulsive acts is not fully developed until adulthood. When teenagers are faced with a reward, the “reward” systems of their brains are disproportionately active compared to the “control” systems (which are later to mature). This makes it difficult for teenagers to be in command of their reward response, and makes them biased towards immediate gain over long-term gain.
A recent article on medicalnewstoday.com highlighted this shortsightedness of youth
According to popular stereotype, young teenagers are shortsighted, leaving them prone to poor judgment and risky decision-making when it comes to issues like taking drugs and having sex. Now a new study confirms that teens 16 and younger do think about the future less than adults, but explains that the reasons may have less to do with impulsivity and more to do with a desire to do something exciting.
Compared with adults, the researchers found, teenagers consider the future less and prefer immediate rewards over delayed ones (for example, $700 today versus $1,000 a year from now). But it may not be impulsivity that guides their lack of forethought. Instead, the study found that teens are shortsighted more due to immaturity in the brain systems that govern sensation seeking than to immaturity in the brain systems responsible for self-control.
While the origins of risk-taking behaviour in adolescents have been debated for a centuries and many explanations ranging from hormones to social pressures have been endorsed. But the truth is we are still not completely sure why adolescents and young adults are more prone to risk-taking behaviours.
We do however know that part of the answer lies in the way that brain development occurs during this part of the life-span and that risk-taking behaviors often decrease as the young person matures into adulthood. It’s the complex interplay amongst brain development, personality characteristics and the environment that lead to differences in risk-taking behavior amongst young people.
Interestingly, recent research suggests that the perception of risk does not vary greatly with age, but rather within the type of decision-making information that adolescents and adults use. So even though adolescents may be more prone to engage in risky behaviour, they are not irrational, unaware, or believe they are more invulnerable than adults. These findings suggest that young people certainly have the frontal lobe capabilities to self modulate risky behaviors – provided they understand how to do so.
(Great article from UC Davis Magazine about "What parents should tell college students about risky behavior . . . even if they don’t listen.")
~ Dr. Stan Kutcher
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This is a great set of comments and rings very true.
I totally agree that scientists (just like everyone else) have their biases and foibles. After all, scientists are human beings too! But science is different than scientists.
The scientific method is the most objective frame that we have by which to evaluate and predict. Science is not about finding truth. It is only about being less wrong most of the time. The scientific method (experimental design and mathematics) gives us the ability to test what we believe. The scientific method is not used to prove something is correct, on the contrary, the scientific method is designed to prove that something is not correct! It is designed to test what is called the “null hypothesis”. It takes ideas that come out of left field (or wherever else they come from) and puts those ideas to an independent test.
t does not drive our beliefs. It does however challenge our beliefs. In that way it is self-correcting. Of course scientific inquiry and understanding lives within a wider social context. That is one of the great features of science.
But gravity is gravity, social context notwithstanding. And thus it is nasty, brutish and long. As Brecht said, (something like this) - the purpose of science is to save us from everlasting error.
By Christina Carew on May 11th
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John Milton said...
nice posting. Teenagers are known for risk-taking, novelty seeking, reckless behaviour and impulsivity.
Comment made on August 05th, 2010
Liz W. said...
While the role of neurobiology and impulsivity is an apparent variable in the process of adolescent risk-taking, it is important to consider the psychological analysis that should not be underplayed on this topic. Adolescents engage in a range of risky behavior in varying degrees of severity and frequency for a multitude of reasons in addition to immature prefrontal cortex development. In some cases risk-taking may be a symptom of underlying family or self-esteem issues and in other cases the behavior may be the result of peer pressure or the desire to impress one’s social group.
Cynthia Lightfoot, a Penn State professor who researches adolescent identity development and risk-taking, offers the idea that risk taking is both common among adolescents and greatly significant to their development. She describes risk-taking as a socially and psychologically sustainable experience and suggests that “risks are taken not for their own sake, but because they carry and communicate particular meanings.” Adolescents may convey and re-convey their adventurous experiences to both affirm who they are and who they are not to their friends, family and society. Lightfoot goes on to explain how risk-taking is socially and psychologically transforming for adolescents in that “risks are actively sought for their capacity to challenge, excite and transform oneself and one’s relations to others.” In this sense, risk-taking can be a creative and resourceful event. The process of risk-taking makes the adolescent the hero in his or her own theatrical drama in a peer and social realm. It is a process by which the adolescent can challenge his or her own abilities, as well as the power of authority in terms of those who place limits on the adolescent’s activities.
Connected to Lightfoot’s analysis of sustainable and transforming experiences, Nakkula and Toshalis go on to illustrate some of the ways in which risk-taking behavior may emerge in a book on adolescent development. The motivation behind the risky behavior of underage drinking is examined in two lights. In the first context, the adolescent does not see the behavior as risky but rather as a method of peer acceptance and normality (“all of my friends do it”). In this sense, the drinking becomes an objective experience instead of an experiential one. However, within the same context, an adolescent may engage in the behavior for the heightened excitement and thrill seeking (to do things one might not otherwise do, etc). This is a good example of the different ways in which an adolescent may be motivated to partake in risky behavior.
As with most matters regarding the complexities of human behavior, I believe considering the interplay between the neurobiological factors and environmental/psychological factors is crucial. The development of the prefrontal cortex and other neuroanatomical structures is certainly implicated in this topic and it is certainly true that we still do not entirely know why adolescents do what they do. Hopefully someday we will be able to determine how biology and the environment work together to create a vast array of behavioral outcomes!
Lightfoot, C. (1997) Chapter 5: Adolescent risk-taking as transformative experience. The Culture of Adolescent Risk-Taking, (pp 97-130). New York: Guilford Press
Nakkula, M & Toshalis, E. ( 2006) Understanding Youth: Adolescent Development for Educators. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
Comment made on March 01st, 2011
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