Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The Role of Deliberative Decision Making, Parenting, and Friends in Adolescent Risk Behaviors

  • Empirical Research
  • Published:
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Adolescents may engage in risk behaviors that jeopardize their futures. Although adolescent risk-taking has long been attributed to faulty decision making, surprisingly little research has directly examined this link. This study examined the role of deliberative decision making (the tendency to consider options and consequences before making a decision) and social contextual variables (parenting and friend influences) in alcohol and drug use, risky sex, and delinquency. Participants were 7,748 adolescents (50% female) in grades 7–11 from the Add Health dataset (M age = 14.87, SD = 1.54). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that deliberative decision making and contextual variables were associated with risk behavior concurrently and 1 year later. Furthermore, deliberative decision making interacted with social contextual variables in some models, indicating that deliberative decision making may be especially important in certain contexts. These findings suggest that both cognitive and social factors need to be considered to explain adolescents’ decisions to engage in risk behavior.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aiken, L., & West, S. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, M., Donohue, W. A., Griffin, A., Ryan, D., & Mitchell Turner, M. M. (2003). Comparing the influence of parents and peers on the choice to use drugs: A meta-analytic summary of the literature. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 30(2), 163–186. doi:10.1177/0093854802251002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ariely, D. (2008). Predictably irrational: The hidden forces that shape our decisions. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55(5), 469–480. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.55.5.469.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barber, B. K., Olsen, J. E., & Shagle, S. C. (1994). Associations between parental psychological and behavioral control and youth internalized and externalized behaviors. Child Development, 65(4), 1120–1136. doi:10.2307/1131309.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barber, B., Stolz, H., & Olsen, J. (2005). Parental support, psychological control, and behavioral control: Assessing relevance across time, culture, and method. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 70(4), 1–137. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5834.2005.00365.x.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, G. M., & Farrell, M. P. (1992). Parental support and control as predictors of adolescent drinking, delinquency, and related problem behaviors. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 54, 763–776. doi:10.2307/353159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, G. M., Farrell, M. P., & Windle, M. (1990). Parent-adolescent interactions in the development of alcohol abuse and other deviant behaviors. In B. K. Barber & B. C. Rollins (Eds.), Parent-adolescent relationships (pp. 121–140). Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baron, J. (1994). Thinking and deciding (2nd ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beyers, W., & Goossens, L. (1999). Emotional autonomy, psychosocial adjustment and parenting: Interactions, moderating and mediating effects. Journal of Adolescence, 22(6), 753–769. doi:10.1006/jado.1999.0268.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beyth-Marom, R., Austin, L., Fischhoff, B., Palmgren, C., & Jacobs-Quadrel, M. (1993). Perceived consequences of risky behaviors: Adults and adolescents. Developmental Psychology, 29(3), 549–563. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.29.3.549.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beyth-Marom, R., & Fischoff, B. (1997). Adolescents’ decisions about risks: A cognitive perspective. In J. Schulenberg, J. L. Maggs, & K. Hurrelmann (Eds.), Health risks and developmental transitions during adolescence (pp. 110–135). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blum, R. W., Beuhring, T., Shew, M. L., Bearinger, L. H., Sieving, R. E., & Resnick, M. D. (2000). The effects of race/ethnicity, income, and family structure on adolescent risk behaviors. American Journal of Public Health, 90(12), 1879–1884.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Byrnes, J. P. (2005). The development of self-regulated decision making. In J. E. Jacobs & P. A. Klaczynski (Eds.), The development of judgment and decision making in children and adolescents (pp. 5–38). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2010). Youth risk behavior surveillance—United States, 2009. Surveillance summaries. MMWR 2010;59 (No. SS-5). Available at: www.cdc.gov/yrbss. Accessed February 25, 2010.

  • Chassin, L., Hussong, A., Barrera, M., Molina, B. S. G., Trim, R., & Ritter, J. (2004). Adolescent substance use. In R. M. Lerner & L. Steinberg (Eds.), Handbook of adolescent psychology (2nd ed., pp. 665–696). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cookston, J. T., & Finlay, A. K. (2006). Father involvement and adolescent adjustment: Longitudinal findings from add health. Fathering, 4(2), 137–158. doi:10.3149/fth.0402.137.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crone, E. A., & van der Molen, M. W. (2008). Neurocognitive development of performance monitoring and decision making. In C. A. Nelson, M. Luciana, C. A. Nelson, & M. Luciana (Eds.), Handbook of developmental cognitive neuroscience (2nd ed., pp. 883–895). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dempster, F. N. (1992). The rise and fall of the inhibitory mechanism: Toward a unified theory of cognitive development and aging. Developmental Review, 12(1), 45–75. doi:10.1016/0273-2297(92)90003-K.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Denes-Raj, V., & Epstein, S. (1994). Conflict between intuitive and rational processing: When people behave against their better judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66(5), 819–829. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.66.5.819.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dishion, T. J., Nelson, S. E., & Bullock, B. M. (2004). Premature adolescent autonomy: Parent disengagement and deviant peer process in the amplification of problem behaviour. Journal of Adolescence, 27(5), 515–530. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2004.06.005.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dornbusch, S. M., et al. (1985). Single parents, extended households, and the control of adolescents. Child Development, 56, 326–341. doi:10.2307/1129723.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eccles, J. S., Lord, S. E., & Roeser, R. W. (1996). Round holes, square pegs, rocky roads, and sore feet: The impact of stage-environment fit on young adolescents’ experiences in schools and families. In D. Cicchetti & S. L. Toth (Eds.), Adolescence: Opportunities and challenges (pp. 47–92). Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elkind, D. (1967). Egocentrism in adolescence. Child Development, 38(4), 1025–1034. doi:10.2307/1127100.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Enders, C. K. (2010). Applied missing data analysis. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farrington, D. (2004). Conduct disorder, aggression, and delinquency. Handbook of adolescent psychology (2nd ed., pp. 627–664). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finken, L. L. (2005). The role of consultants in adolescents’ decision making: A focus on abortion decisions. In J. E. Jacobs & P. A. Klaczynski (Eds.), The development of decision making in children and adolescents (pp. 255–278). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • French, D., & Dishion, T. (2003). Predictors of early initiation of sexual intercourse among high-risk adolescents. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 23(3), 295–315. doi:10.1177/0272431603254171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Furby, L., & Beyth-Marom, R. (1992). Risk taking in adolescence: A decision-making perspective. Developmental Review, 12(1), 1–44. doi:10.1016/0273-2297(92)90002-J.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galambos, N. L., & Leadbeater, B. J. (2000). Trends in adolescent research for the new millennium. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 24(3), 289–294. doi:10.1080/01650250050118268.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galotti, K. M. (2001). Helps and hindrances for adolescents making important real-life decisions. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 22(3), 275–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galotti, K. M. (2007). Decision structuring in important real-life choices. Psychological Science, 18(4), 320–325.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gardner, M., & Steinberg, L. (2005). Peer influence on risk taking, risk preference, and risky decision making in adolescent and adulthood: An experimental study. Developmental Psychology, 41(4), 625–635. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.41.4.625.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goncy, E. A., & van Dulmen, M. M. (2010). Fathers do make a difference: Parental involvement and adolescent alcohol use. Fathering, 8(1), 93–108. doi:10.3149/fth.0801.93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, K. M., Florey, F., Tabor, J., Bearman, P. S., Jones, J. & Udry, J. R. (2003). The national longitudinal study of adolescent health: Research design [www document]. URL: http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth/design.

  • Hawkins, D. J., Catalano, R. F., & Miller, J. Y. (1992). Risk and protective factors for alcohol and other drug problems in adolescence and early adulthood: Implications for substance abuse prevention. Psychological Bulletin, 112(1), 64–105. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.64.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hofer, S., & Hoffman, L. (2007). Statistical analysis with incomplete data: A developmental perspective. Modeling contextual effects in longitudinal studies (pp. 13–32). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmbeck, G. N., Paikoff, R. L., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1995). Parenting adolescents. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting, vol. 1: Children and parenting (pp. 91–118). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ingram, J., Patchin, J., Huebner, B., McCluskey, J., & Bynum, T. (2007). Parents, friends, and serious delinquency: An examination of direct and indirect effects among at-risk early adolescents. Criminal Justice Review, 32(4), 380–400. doi:10.1177/0734016807311436.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, J. E., & Johnston, K. E. (2005). “Everyone else is doing it”: Relations between bias in base-rate estimates and involvement in deviant behaviors. In J. E. Jacobs & P. A. Klaczynski (Eds.), The development of decision making in children and adolescents (pp. 157–179). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2009). Monitoring the future: National results on adolescent drug use. Retrieved May 1, 2010 from http://monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/overview2009.pdf.

  • Kahneman, D. (2003). A perspective on judgment and choice: Mapping bounded rationality. American Psychologist, 58(9), 697–720. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.58.9.697.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman, D., Slovic, P., & Tversky, A. (1982). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klaczynski, P. A. (2005). Metacognition and cognitive variability: A dual-process model of decision making and its development. In J. E. Jacobs & P. A. Klaczynski (Eds.), The development of judgment and decision making in children and adolescents (pp. 39–76). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, C. (1981). How adolescents approach decisions: Changes over grades seven to twelve and policy implications. Child Development, 52(2), 538–544. doi:10.2307/1129172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McHale, S., Crouter, A., & Whiteman, S. (2003). The family contexts of gender development in childhood and adolescence. Social Development, 12(1), 125–148. doi:10.1111/1467-9507.00225.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Millstein, S. G., & Halpern-Felsher, B. L. (2002). Judgments about risk and perceived invulnerability in adolescents and young adults. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 12(4), 399–422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Musher-Eizenman, D. R., Holub, S. C., & Arnett, M. (2003). Attitude and peer influences on adolescent substance use: The moderating effect of age, sex, and substance. Journal of Drug Education, 33(1), 1–23. doi:10.2190/YED0-BQA8-5RVX-95JB.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Patrick, M., Blair, C., & Maggs, J. (2008). Executive function, approach sensitivity, and emotional decision making as influences on risk behaviors in young adults. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 30(4), 449–462. doi:10.1080/13803390701523109.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Prinstein, M. J., Boergers, J., & Spirito, A. (2001). Adolescents’ and their friends’ health-risk behavior: Factors that alter or add to peer influence. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 26(5), 287–298. doi:10.1093/jpepsy/26.5.287.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Quadrel, M. J., Fischhoff, B., & Davis, W. (1993). Adolescent (in)vulnerability. American Psychologist, 48(2), 102–116. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.48.2.102.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Raffaelli, M., & Crockett, L. (2003). Sexual risk taking in adolescence: The role of self-regulation and attraction to risk. Developmental Psychology, 39(6), 1036–1046. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.39.6.1036.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • 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(1), 1–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simons-Morton, B. (2007). Social influences on adolescent substance use. American Journal of Health Behavior, 31(6), 672–684.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Smetana, J. G., Crean, H. F., & Daddis, C. (2002). Family processes and problem behaviors in middle-class African American adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 12(2), 275–304. doi:10.1111/1532-7795.00034.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stanovich, K., & West, R. (2000). Individual differences in reasoning: Implications for the rationality debate? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23(5), 645–726. doi:10.1017/S0140525X00003435.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Steinberg, L. (2004). Risk taking in adolescence: What changes, and why? Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1021, 51–58. doi:10.1196/annals.1308.005.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Steinberg, L. (2008). A social neuroscience perspective on adolescent risk-taking. Developmental Review, 28, 78–106. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2007.08.002.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Steinberg, L., Graham, S., O’Brien, L., Woolard, J., Cauffman, E., & Banich, M. (2009). Age differences in future orientation and delay discounting. Child Development, 80(1), 28–44. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01244.x.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Van Der Vorst, H., Vermulst, A., Meeus, W., Deković, M., & Engels, R. (2009). Identification and prediction of drinking trajectories in early and mid-adolescence. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 38(3), 329–341. doi:10.1080/15374410902851648.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zimmer-Gembeck, M. J., & Helfand, M. (2008). Ten years of longitudinal research on US adolescent sexual behavior: Developmental correlates of sexual intercourse, and the importance of age, gender and ethnic background. Developmental Review, 28(2), 153–224. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2007.06.001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by grant # HD R01 039438 from NICHD to L. Crockett and S. Russell. This research uses data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris, and funded by a grant P01-HD31921 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Persons interested in obtaining data files from Add Health should contact Add Health, Carolina Population Center, 123 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2524 (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth/contract.html).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology Department, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA

    Jennifer M. Wolff & Lisa J. Crockett

Authors
  1. Jennifer M. Wolff
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lisa J. Crockett
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jennifer M. Wolff.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wolff, J.M., Crockett, L.J. The Role of Deliberative Decision Making, Parenting, and Friends in Adolescent Risk Behaviors. J Youth Adolescence 40, 1607–1622 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-011-9644-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-011-9644-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation