A meta-analysis on age differences in risky decision making: Adolescents versus children and adults.

Abstract

Despite evident heightened adolescent risk-taking in real-life situations, not all experimental studies demonstrate that adolescents take more risks than children and adults on risky decision-making tasks. In the current 4 independent meta-analyses, neurodevelopmental imbalance models and fuzzy trace theory were used as conceptual frameworks to examine whether adolescents engage in more risk-taking than children and adults and whether early adolescents take more risks than children and mid-late adolescents on behavioral risk-taking tasks. Studies with at least 1 of the aforementioned age comparisons met the inclusion criteria. Consistent with imbalance models and fuzzy trace theory, results from a random-effects model showed that adolescents take more risks (g = .37) than adults, and early adolescents take more risks (g = .15) than mid-late adolescents. However, inconsistent with both perspectives, adolescents and children take equal levels of risk (g = -.00), and early adolescents and children also take equal levels of risk (g = .04). Meta-regression analyses revealed that, consistent with imbalance models, (a) adolescents take more risks than adults on hot tasks with immediate outcome feedback on rewards and losses; however, contrary to imbalance models but consistent with fuzzy trace theory, (b) adolescents take fewer risks than children on tasks with a sure/safe option. Shortcomings related to studies using behavioral risk-taking tasks are discussed. We suggest a hybrid developmental neuroecological model of risk-taking that includes a risk opportunity component to explain why adolescents take more risks than children in the real world but equal levels of risks as children in the laboratory.

Knowing when to hold ‘em: regret and the relation between missed opportunities and risk taking in children, adolescents and adults

“…Furthermore, despite previous evidence that the effects of emotion on risk taking are greater in adolescence than in adulthood (Defoe et al, 2015), the impact of missed opportunities, an implicit measure of regret, was greatest in a group of adults. In other words, the effects of regret responsivity on risk taking continue to increase into adulthood.…”

“…Much developmental work on risky decision-making has focussed on adolescents (see Boyer, 2006;Hartley & Somerville, 2015), who are often thought to be more risk seeking than younger children or adults (see Steinberg, 2007). Adolescents are particularly likely to take risks in so-called "hot" decision-making tasks where immediate outcome feedback is provided, consistent with suggestions that affect plays a larger role in adolescent than adult decision-making (Defoe, Dubas, Figner, & Van Aken, 2015;Steinberg, 2007). If adolescent decisionmaking is particularly susceptible to emotional influences, one obvious hypothesis is that regret arising out of information about missed opportunities will have a greater impact on decision-making in adolescents than in children or in adults.…”

The influence of groups and alcohol consumption on individual risk-taking

“…Finally, in consideration of reported age and gender differences in impulsivity (Cross et al, 2011;Lauriola et al, 2014), risk-taking (Byrnes et al, 1999;Defoe et al, 2015), and alcohol use behaviours (Erol & Karpyak, 2015), the first stage of each model included age and gender as controls. Inconsistent with previous research (Livingston & Room, 2009), gender did not predict any alcohol consumption behaviour.…”

“…Gender and age were entered into the regression models first in order to control for age and gender-related differences in risk-taking (Byrnes, Miller, & Schafer, 1999;Defoe, Dubas, Figner, & van Aken, 2015), impulsivity (Cross, Copping, & Campbell, 2011;Lauriola, Panno, Levin, & Lejuez, 2014), and alcohol use (Erol & Karpyak, 2015).…”

Risk-Taking, Delay Discounting, and Time Perspective in Adolescent Gamblers: An Experimental Study

“…It may be that, apart from age, other individual and social (such as peer pressure) or contextual factors play a prominent role in behavioral addictions such as gambling. Recently, Defoe et al (2015) made reference to risk-taking opportunities and suggested a hybrid developmental neuroecological model of risk-taking that includes a risk opportunity component.…”