1-058 - Notions of Emotion: Diverse Emotion and Reward Pathways in Adolescent Risk Taking

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Public health experts recognize adolescence as a potentially unsafe period, as adolescents are disproportionately involved in dangerous behaviors. Emotional dysregulation and reward-bias are well-established risk-factors associated with adolescents’ dangerous behavior but assumptions of stability and homogeneity have limited current understanding. This symposium highlights variation in how young people construct risk. Specifically, we address important next steps for the field by exploring dynamics of emotion across days and over time, and considering nuances in how rewards predict risk and when.

The first study examines heterogeneity in emotion regulation trajectories across nine years. This study shows that developmental patterns of self-regulation differentially impact decision making and suggests patterns of rapid developmental change may be especially important in determining subsequent risk taking. The second study investigates how potential rewards and costs differentially impact different types of risky driving among older adolescents. Results show potential costs only matter sometimes, suggesting that usual behaviors may not elicit risk cognitions but unusual may. The final study examines reward-bias in conjunction with daily variations in emotion and risk behavior using ESM data with a sample of Australian youth. Results indicate reward-biased youth engage in risk behavior regardless of their daily emotion, whereas other youth vary their risk taking according to their emotional state. These findings suggest emotions act as a signal for risk-taking, but only for less reward-biased youth.

An internationally recognized expert in the area of adolescent problem behavior prevention will discuss findings in light of his experience designing universal and indicated behavior interventions.

Sub Unit

• Health, Growth, Injury

Chair

• Kathryn L Modecki, Griffith University

Discussant

• Patrick Tolan, University of Virginia

Individual Presentations

• Developmental Trajectories of Self-Regulation Predict Later Decision-Making Tendencies: A Nine-Year Longitudinal Study - Presenting Author: Joshua A. Weller, Oregon State University; Andrew Parker, RAND Corporation; Maureen Reynolds, University of Pittsburgh

• Driving Recklessly: When the Risks Matter Less than the Benefits - Presenting Author: Shelly Sadek McCoy, La Sierra University

• Worth Their While? Using ESM to Investigate Adolescents’ Reward-Bias, Daily Emotion and Risk Behavior - Presenting Author: Kathryn L Modecki, Griffith University; Bep Uink, Murdoch University; Bonnie L. Barber, Griffith University