If you read the local news section
of a newspaper, you are bound to come across the story of a tragic death or
injury to a teen. They might be texting,
drinking and driving, or skateboarding in a precarious spot. Reading these stories may reinforce a general
belief that teens simply take too many risks.
So, are teens really bigger
risk-takers than adults?
A fascinating paper by Erik de
Water, Antonius Cillessen, and Anouk Scheres in the October, 2014 issue of Child Development examines this
question.
A lot of the behaviors in teens
that we think of as risky are really impulsive. Being impulsive means doing something that
feels good right now rather than waiting in order to do something even better
in the future.
There are two parts to impulsivity.
The first is risk. When you are impulsive, you might choose to
do riskier things now without thinking through the long-term consequences.
The second is value. If you value things in the present more than
things in the future, then you may choose to get things right now. Everyone values the present more than the future
to some degree. I would rather get $10
right now than to get $10 in a week.
But, how much more would I need to get in a week in order to forego $10
right now. I might still prefer $10 now
to $10.01 in a week. But, perhaps I
would take $12 next week rather than $10 today.
These researchers tested teens
ranging in age from 12-17 and young adults ranging in age from 18-27. All participants were given a test of risk
and a test of value. They were also
given a test of fluid intelligence (the Raven’s Progressive Matrices test) and
a test of how much they value different amounts of money right now.
The test they used to measure risk
was a simple gambling task. Participants
saw a pie cut into 6 pieces, where 4 pieces were in one color and 2 were in the
other. This pie represented a gamble in
which there was a 2/3 chance of winning one prize and a 1/3 chance of winning
the other. The prizes were set up so
that the prize with the higher probability was always half the size of the
prize with the lower probability. So, a
gamble might offer a 2/3 chance of winning $4 and a 1/3 chance of winning
$8. The more often someone selects the
low probability gamble, the more risk they are taking.
The test for value involved having
people make a series of decisions about whether they would prefer a particular
amount of money right now or a larger amount of money some time in the
future. The time period ranged from 2
days to a year.
The results suggested that teens
were not riskier than adults, but they did value the present more than the
adults did. That is, both adults and
teens selected the riskier gamble at about the same rate. However, compared to the adults, teens needed
more money in the future to be willing to delay getting money now rather than
money later. Other measures in this
study examined how much teens value particular amounts of money. Teens definitely find small amounts of money
to be more valuable than adults. But,
even taking that difference into account, teens still valued money in the present
more than money in the future.
What does this mean?
We tend to think of teens as taking
more risks than adults. But, findings
like this suggest that teens are more impulsive not because they are willing to
take more risks, but because they value the present so highly. The difficult thing for teens is to recognize
that future experiences may be more valuable than their options in the
moment.
It is important to tease apart
these factors, because it influences the kinds of information we want to give
to teens to help them take a long-term perspective on life events. If teens were big risk takers, then we might
want to educate them better about the risks associated with behaviors.
But, because teens value the
present so strongly, it is important to help them see the value of the
future. One reason for the viral success
of the “It Gets Better” videos
is that it aimed to help LGBT teens to see that the problems that they face now
are not as big as they seem and that the future holds valuable things in
store. This strategy is one that can be
generally effective in helping teens to delay impulsive behavior right now in
favor of the long term.
