Positive and negative risk-taking: Age patterns and relations to domain-specific risk-taking

Abstract

People take risks at all ages to achieve certain goals. Although these goals may be achieved through negative risks (e.g., adolescent drinking to impress their friends), people also take positive risks. Positive risks are theorized to help individuals achieve goals in developmentally appropriate and socially acceptable ways, such as initiating a new friendship as an adolescent, applying for a promotion as a young adult, or exploring a new hobby as a retiree. To test the hypothesis that people endorse different patterns of risk-taking across life, we examined age patterns in positive and negative risk-taking with a sample of individuals ranging in age from 12 to 71 years. In adults aged 19–71, we also examined to what extent positive and negative risk-taking are associated with domain-specific risk-taking and risk-taking propensity. Results indicated that positive risk-taking varied with age in the form of an inverted-U shape and peaked in middle adulthood. Negative antisocial risk-taking varied with age in the form of a U shape and was highest in adolescence. Negative health risk-taking varied with age in the form of an inverted-U shape and peaked in middle adulthood. In adults, greater positive risk-taking was associated with greater risk-taking in the social domain and greater risk-taking propensity. Greater negative risk-taking was associated with greater risk-taking in ethical and health/safety domains, and with greater risk-taking propensity. Altogether, this study is the first to demonstrate age patterns in positive and negative risk-taking across adolescence and adulthood. It also contributes to the validity of positive risk-taking as a construct distinct from negative risk-taking.