Adolescent risk-taking: Integrating personal, cognitive, and social aspects of judgment

Developmental research has examined individual differences, cognitive developmental bases, and psychosocial factors of adolescent risk-taking. The current paper presents a general adolescent risk-taking model that adopts aspects of each of these primarily independent areas. This model is based on the premise that adolescents take risks when (a) they are given the opportunity to take risks (a social component), (b) they perceive the benefits of the risks (a cognitive component), and (c) they have the propensity to take risks (a personal trait component). A self-report instrument was designed to assess the viability of this model. The results from two mid-late adolescent samples, explored with a variety of statistical techniques, showed that risk-taking was predicted by opportunities, outcome perception, and several of the proposed propensities. In addition, however, the analyses suggest that the actual role of certain propensity factors may have been obscured in prior studies.