3-100 - Sensation Seeking Across Adolescence and Young Adulthood: National and Historical Variation in its Level, Growth, and Correlates

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

As part of this cross-national, multidisciplinary symposium, a group of psychologists and epidemiologists utilize large-scale data to examine national and historical variation in sensation seeking (SS) and its correlates during adolescence and young adulthood. Locating varying levels and trajectories of SS within national and historical context and linking that variation to other risky behaviors assists in understanding how more distal, societal factors contribute to the etiology and epidemiology of risky behavior.

Although the symposium’s three papers each stand alone, all directly relate to the symposium’s larger focus. The first study, which uses cross-sectional, cross-national data, found that SS and related constructs all follow an inverted-U pattern from age 10-30, and will address whether this pattern is universal across the 10 countries examined. Using repeated, US cross-sectional surveys, the second study found that age 18 SS increased across the last three decades, while SS’s positive link to concurrent marijuana use increased historically. Using US panel data and multi-level modeling to model individual- and cohort-level trends, the third study found that age 18-26 growth in SS was largely stable historically and did not move in tandem with age 18-26 growth in heavy drinking, which increased historically. Thus, linkages among SS and risky behavior appear to vary across the individual-level (Study 2 found a consistently positive link) and cohort-level (Study 3 found either a negative link or no link).

To facilitate the discussion and integration of the studies’ findings, the symposium’s discussant, a senior scholar, will highlight implications and future directions.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chair

• Justin Jager, Arizona State University

Discussant

• John E Schulenberg, Univ of Michigan

Individual Presentations

• Is The Increase in Reward-Seeking During Adolescence Universal? - Presenting Author: Laurence Steinberg, Temple University; Kaitlyn Suzanne Breiner, University of California, Los Angeles

• Has the population prevalence of adolescent sensation seeking and its relation to substance use changed over time? - Presenting Author: Katherine Keyes, Columbia University

• Trajectories of sensation seeking and risky behavior during transition to adulthood: Developmental linkages across historical time - Presenting Author: Justin Jager, Arizona State University