Multiple pathways of risk taking in adolescence

Abstract

In this review, we describe multiple pathways that may lead to risk-taking in adolescence. We review behavioral and neuroimaging studies showing heightened risk-taking tendencies and associated neural reward activity in mid to late adolescence, but evidence points to risk taking as highly context and sample dependent. Here, we suggest that individual differences, specifically reward drive, may be a differential susceptibility factor that shows heightened sensitivity in adolescents and that makes some adolescents more sensitive to their environment. Furthermore, we review evidence that an elevated reward drive in mid-adolescence in interaction with prosocial and cognitive development can lead to various trajectories of risk taking. In this review we propose to extend existing models with individual-difference factors, specifically reward drive, and accompanying developmental processes, including cognitive control and prosocial development, that drive the development of multiple pathways of risk taking.