Examining The Link Between Adolescent Brain Development And Risk Taking From A Social-Developmental Perspective
Introduction
Risk-taking is a common behaviour among adolescents, and can be described as participating in potentially harmful or dangerous activities according to Azhar et. al. (2015). Just as the global population is increasing, so are levels of risk-taking behaviour among adolescents. The adolescent stage of life involves developments in mental and physical capabilities. The American Psychological Association (2011) states that impulsivity is highest in individuals aged 14, and decreases after that. Impulsivity is a personality trait, which makes an individual more likely to carry out any spontaneous action, without considering negative outcomes to one’s self, or towards others. There are two types of impulsivity; unregulated and regulated impulsivity. Unregulated impulsivity involves emotions, whereas regulated impulsivity is planned and controlled. In relation to this, sensation-seeking appears to be highest at age 16 years, then declines gradually. This essay aims to analyse when risk-taking behaviour is most common within adolescents, which in particular, occurs either during middle adolescence or emerging adulthood.
Summary
This article highlights the difference between adolescents and emerging adults in terms of risk-taking behaviour. The adolescent age period, according to the American Psychological Association (2011) is from ages 13-16 years, when they are also called youths. Emerging adulthood is when individuals are aged 17-18 years old. The main findings of this article present that most risk-taking behaviours are reported by emerging adults, who are university and college students. Examples of high-risk activities reported were hard drug abuse and higher use of alcohol. Adolescents are exposed to risks especially when they are put in situations where they experience ‘high arousal’ states. This means that the adolescent is in a situation which causes them to feel emotional and unable to make a rational decision. Because of this, adolescents are more easily influenced to take part in high risk behaviours spontaneously, especially when encouraged by their peers or are seeking social rewards. The Dual Systems Model of adolescent brain development states that the peak age of risky behaviour is during middle adolescence. This is because the affective network (responsible for emotions) and the cognitive control system (responsible for planning and regulation) do not mature at the same time.
According to Casey, Getz and Galvin (2008), this is the cause of vulnerability to risk-taking in adolescents. It could be suggested that an adolescent may even experience cognitive dissonance, which is when an attitude is not consistent with a behaviour and causes discomfort within an individual.
Limitations
There are several limitations about this article, one is that we cannot conclude that risk-taking behaviour is caused solely because of the different development times of the affective network and cognitive control network. Dahl (2011) articulates that adolescent brain development has not been thoroughly examined for links between real-world risk-taking behaviours, and activity in the affective approach and cognitive control systems. Because of this, more research should be conducted, especially towards brain neurology and how these two systems develop over time and how they can affect one another. Once more research is conducted, these theories can be applied to human risk-taking behaviours and after that, studies may be conducted which test for links between these two brain systems and behaviours. Willoughby, Good, Adachi, Hamza and Tavernier, 2013, articulate that more longitudinal research should be conducted, specifically through an individual’s adolescence period. There is not much existing research about brain development and risk-taking over time. Therefore, more longitudinal research is required.
Future research ideas may be to conduct studies which begin from the start of adolescence at age 13 to early adulthood at age 20. Large samples should be collected, preferably samples of adolescents from several different countries, to make samples as diverse as possible. The data collected and analysed should provide more valid findings. Also, some studies contradict the Dual System Model hypothesis that risk-taking is most common among 15 year olds. For instance, Hooshmand, Willoughby and Good, 2012 conducted a longitudinal study about the participation of a variety of risk-taking behaviours, and found that youths showed low levels of risk-taking behaviours, compared to adolescents aged 17 and 18 in grade 12, who showed high levels of risk-taking behaviour such as marijuana and hard drug use.
Improvements/ Future Research
There are several plausible opportunities for future research for investigating the link between risk-taking and adolescents. Willoughby, Good, Adachi, Hamza, Tavernier, 2013 suggest the importance of how social context can influence risk behaviour. For example, a mother’s stress can change her behaviour, and in turn will change her offspring’s behaviour, Kalat (2016). From this, it can be assumed that stressful social contexts can cause an individual to act more impulsively and take more risks, in comparison to calmer social contexts, which should have the opposite effect.
In addition, future studies can also be conducted about individual differences of individuals. The main purpose of this would be to see if behaviour is controlled by System 1 or System 2 of the Dual Systems Model, which Hofmann et al. agree on. System 1 is fast and automatic and relies on emotions, whereas system 2 is slow and controlled, Kahneman (2011).
It is also important that further research should be conducted on changes in social norms, which is supported by Leaf and Preusser (1995). They conducted a study into groups such as ‘SAAD’ which is ‘Students against drunk driving’ and compared against other such groups on its effectiveness. The main finding was that very active programs reported a higher degree of negative attitudes. This suggests that it may be possible for schools and colleges to implement programs such as these regarding risk-taking into their curriculum. This is so that students will be educated and aware of the consequences of risk-taking behaviours, while they are currently going through adolescence. This method may be successful because if adolescents are educated about this topic repeatedly in every advancing grade, the higher the chance that it will affect their attitude as they mature throughout adolescence. Lastly, it is also possible to conduct meta-analyses on neurobiological, psychological and socio-cultural perspectives. This allows researchers to analyse differences in results between different studies. Also, it enables us to identify if further research is required to obtain findings for unanswered research questions. From this, we can also create new hypotheses to research on, which can be conducted via different types of research designs.
Conclusion
From this article we can conclude that in general, adolescents participate in low levels of risk-taking behaviours, compared to emerging adults such as those in college and university. Critical analysis of frequency of risk-taking, challenges the hypothesis that the peak occurrence of risk-taking is during middle adolescence, and several studies prove otherwise. In my opinion, the theory which I agree the most with, is how social norms can influence attitudes and hence our behaviours. An example is a study conducted by Leaf & Preusser (1995) about how implemented social programs can change attitudes of individuals. The social context has a large impact on individuals, as everyone is exposed daily to social interactions. Because of this, others’ behaviours can easily impact our own thoughts and behaviours. This is likely why adolescents are so easily influenced and give in to peer pressure. College and university students in particular are vulnerable to peer pressure and high-risk behaviour. The reason for this is because at this age, most adolescents are probably studying overseas without any supervision, meaning they have freedom and choose to experience new things. Contrastingly, youths aged 13-16 years are still in school and are restricted in terms of behaviour, to some extent by their caregivers, meaning overall they take part in less risk-taking behaviours.
