Rebecca Ladd
April 22, 2009
Decisions That Involve Risk Among Children and Adolescents
Rebecca Ladd
Introduction
Risky decisions are those decisions that hold a strong possibility of danger, hazard or loss to the
decision maker(s) and/or others. Risky decisions are usually associated with children and, more
commonly, adolescents. This research report is aimed at targeting the causes involved with decision
making processes that lead to these risky behaviors. Psychological, developmental, neurological, and
behavioral explanations will all be explored as possible reasons for risky decision making among children
and adolescents. A particularly important area of interest in this topic involves determining the key
difference(s) between the decision making mechanisms of children/adolescents versus adults. In
identifying the key difference(s), we can more clearly see why children and/or adolescents choose to
participate in risky behaviors. This question often arises in the creation of behavior management plans by
school systems, law enforcement, youth crime prevention programs, etc. It is also important to explore the
environmental and social factors that play into the previously mentioned key differences between
children/adolescents versus adults.
Literature Review
The first article I chose to include in this report is entitled “The Development of Judgment and
Decision Making during Childhood and Adolescence (Jacobs & Klaczynski, 2002).” This article focuses
on the development of decision making processes from childhood, through adolescence, all the way up to
through adulthood. Jacobs and Klaczynski give evidence that says that, although adults are somewhat
successful at making “good” decisions, they often fall victim to judgment biases, just like children and
adolescents. The article even states that the use of heuristics increases with age; the reason for this being
that “judgment heuristics and other biases appear to be linked to increases in knowledge (e.g.,
stereotypes) and to preservation of social beliefs (e.g., religious beliefs) (Jacobs & Klaczynski, 2002).”
The article also outlines two forms of developmental change: 1. improvements in reasoning
competencies and 2. increases in the number of heuristics obtained and the frequency those heuristics are
used (Jacobs & Klaczynski, 2002). Additionally, Jacobs and Klaczynski conclude that the development of
decision making is by no means a progressive, one-way process. It is a very complex course of
development with a multitude of components. Development occurs through two information processing
systems, an experiential system and an analytical system (Jacobs & Klaczynski, 2002). “Whereas the
experiential system relies heavily on the contents of memory for judgments and decision, analytic
processing is based on the acquisition and application of abilities that are important for normative
reasoning and decision making (Jacobs & Klaczynski, 2002).”
The second article included in my report is entitled “Risk and Rationality in Adolescent Decision
Making: Implications for Theory, Practice, and Public Policy (Reyna & Farley, 2006).” In this article,
Reyna and Farley make the claim that both adults and adolescents use an optimistic bias. This bias causes
the individual to feel that he/she is at less risk than others for entering a risky, potentially dangerous
situation. There are even some cases in which adolescents perceive themselves as being more susceptible
to risky situations than adults perceive themselves. Reyna and Farley acknowledge the previously
mentioned information but they then go on to explain that adolescents may feel more vulnerable to risky
situations, but they do not always recognize the consequences and long-term effects. Therefore, they are
more likely to ignore their feelings of vulnerability and engage in risky situations. One of the major
focuses of the article is cognitive-developmental differences between adolescents and adults. Adolescents
Rebecca Ladd
April 22, 2009
use “qualitative gist-based thinking, which explains increases in cognitive illusions with age (Reyna &
Farley, 2006).” This type of thinking encourages “globally adaptive but locally flawed thinking processes
(Reyna & Farley, 2006).” Finally, the article concludes that apparent benefits seem to overrun possible
risks in the mind of adolescents, and therefore, account for risk-taking behaviors (Reyna & Farley, 2006).
Lastly, I chose to include the article entitled “Risk Taking in Adolescence: New Perspectives
from Brain and Behavioral Sciences (Steinberg, 2007).” This article proposes a developmental
neuroscience approach to explaining adolescent risk taking. In addition to discussing the causes of these
risky behaviors, this paper attempts to provide characteristics of solutions that would be successful at
reducing risky behaviors among adolescents. Steinberg suggests that “heightened risk taking in
adolescence is the product of the interaction between two brain networks (Steinberg, 2007).” The first is
the socio-emotional network and the second is the cognitive-control network. The socio-emotional
network deals with social and emotional arousal and is highly associated with puberty and hormonal
changes. The cognitive-control network, however, is largely divorced from the cycles of puberty and is
responsible for basic brain functioning and procedural cognitive regulation (Steinberg, 2007). The article
also pays a great deal of attention to contextual situations in which adolescents make risky decisions. For
example, Steinberg suggests that some risky behaviors may be partially due to the fact that adolescents
are surrounded by their peers very frequently. Being in this environment makes the rewarding
components of risky situations more prominent and desirable for adolescents (Steinberg, 2007).
Relationship to Other Topics
Risky decision making practices among adolescents and children have very clear relevance to other
topics in the field of behavioral decision theory. Some of the literary pieces that I have previously
referenced make specific in-text references to theories and concepts within the field of behavioral
decision theory. Some of the main concepts that are specifically relevant to risky decision making among
adolescents and/or children are: framing effects, de-contextualization, heuristics, and active, open-minded
thinking.
A large part of risky decisions made by children and/or adolescents can be attributed to the
individual’s reliance upon heuristics. Judgment biases (heuristics) can be seen in the decision making
skills of children as young as four years old. The frequency of using heuristics increases greatly during
elementary school years, again in mid-adolescence, and once again in the onset of adulthood. However,
risky decisions are more often made in childhood and adolescence; this is because although heuristics are
used in adulthood, adults additionally experience an increase in social knowledge and an increase in
ability to de-contextualize problems. Therefore, the key developmental issue is that children and
adolescence often encounter the same amount of, for example, framing effects in decision making, but
adults are more apt to overcome these heuristics due to their heightened ability to de-contextualize
problems and engage in active, open-minded thinking.
Much of the research about risky decision making among adolescents and children is focused on
creating and changing public policy in order to decrease the frequency of risky decisions. The most
prevalent recommendations of how to change policy are centered on changing the context in which
adolescents are faced with potentially risky decisions. Although this is not de-contextualization, it is a
form of altering context. One example of altering social context is raising the cost of cigarettes. For many
adolescents, this would change the context of the situation in that it may no longer be a decision of
whether or not they wish to participate in the risky behavior but more of an issue of not being able to
afford the monetary cost of the behavior. The rewarding aspect of the behavior may now be less desirable
due to the increased price of receiving that social reward (peer acceptance).
Rebecca Ladd
April 22, 2009
Works Cited
Jacobs, J. E. & Klaczynski, P. A. (2002). The Development of Judgment and Decision Making During
Childhood and Adolescence. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 145-149.
Reyna, V. F., & Farley, F. (2006). Risk and Rationality in Adolescent Decision Making; Implications for
Theory, Practice, and Public Policy. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 7, No. 1
Steinberg, L. (2007) Risk taking in Adolescence: New Perspectives from Brain and Behavioral Sciences.
Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 55-59