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Parental and Peer Influences on Adolescent Risk Taking

Fri, April 9, 2:45 to 4:15pm EDT (2:45 to 4:15pm EDT), Virtual

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Preventable threats that result from risk taking are among the most deleterious to the health and safety of adolescents. Consequently, identifying predictors of risk taking is essential to refine prevention approaches. To advance this effort, we identify parental and peer predictors of risk taking by bridging findings from studies of domestic and international samples of adolescents. The first study explored developmental trajectories between negative parenting, emotion regulation, and health risk behaviors across four years in adolescence and revealed that the trajectory of negative parenting predicts health risk behaviors via emotion regulation development and externalizing symptoms. The second study evaluated the predictive utility of five methods for characterizing discrepancies in parent and adolescent reports of aspects of parental monitoring—suggesting possible deficits in the parent-child relationship—in predicting cannabis use among court-involved, non-incarcerated adolescents. Parental control best predicted adolescent cannabis use, and cannabis use was greater when parent reports of monitoring diverged from their child’s report. The third examined risk taking and resistance to peer influence at three time points in an international sample to determine if individuals who take more risks are also less resistant to peer influence, as well as to identify cultural differences on these constructs and trends over time. Results indicated that as adolescents age, they are more sensitive to behaving in ways consistent with their peers, which is specific based on their gender and culture. The implications of these findings for individuals, families, and communities will be integrated by an esteemed expert.

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