3-138 - Development as Process: Delinquency, Substance Use, and Risk Taking During Adolescence

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Although involvement in risk taking behaviors, like delinquency and substance use, are one of the greatest public health concerns during adolescence, we have incomplete understanding of the processes by which these behaviors emerge. The present symposium advance the methodological, etiological, and theoretical understanding of delinquent and risk taking behaviors.

In the first study, researchers test how multiple dimensions of impulsivity predict delinquency. In a series of structural equation models, the authors find that a combined latent factor of self-report and behavioral measures of impulsivity provide the best predictive power of delinquent behavior.

The second study examines how sensation seeking, associating with deviant peers, and parental monitoring are associated with delinquency. Using a sample of adolescent twins, results indicate the combination of being high in sensation seeking and deviant peer affiliation is linked to greater delinquency, but only among teens with low levels of parental monitoring.

The third study tests how social relationships impact delinquency and substance use, finding that higher maternal sanctions of delinquency are associated with lower delinquency, but only when the mother has high involvement in risky behaviors herself. Youth may only respond to maternal sanctions if their mothers have first-hand understanding of risky behaviors.

The final study investigates how risk and protective factors are related to delinquency and substance use and more positive forms of risk taking. The results indicate that there are subpopulations of teenagers who engage in different types of risk taking and that individual and contextual factors are associated with these latent classes.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chair

• Kathryn Monahan, University of Pittsburgh

Individual Presentations

• Impulsivity Assessments and Implications for Predicting Adolescent Offending - Presenting Author: Adam Fine, University of California - Irvine; Elizabeth Cauffman, University of California - Irvine; Laurence Steinberg, Temple University

• Genetic and Environmental Pathways to Adolescent Delinquency: Sensation Seeking, Peer Deviance, and Parental Monitoring - Presenting Author: Frank Dwight Mann, University of Texas at Austin; Elliot M Tucker-Drob, University of Texas at Austin; K. Paige Harden, University of Texas at Austin

• Important Others’ Involvement in Risky Behavior and Antisocial Behavior among Adjudicated Female Adolescent Offenders - Presenting Author: Julia Dmitrieva, University of Denver; Jamie Novak, Univ of Denver; Emma Espel, University of Denver

• Two sides of the same coin: Positive and negative forms of risk taking during adolescence and young adulthood - Presenting Author: Kathryn Monahan, University of Pittsburgh; Susan E. VanDerhei, University of Pittsburgh; Jamie Amemiya, Univ of Pittsburgh