It is also the case that adolescents engage in more risky behavior than adults, although the magnitude of age differences in risk-taking vary as a function of the specific risk in question and the age of the “adolescents” and “adults” used as comparison groups rates of risk-taking are high among 18- to 21-year-olds, for instance, some of whom may be classified as adolescents and some who may be classified as adults. Although rates of certain types of adolescent risk-taking, such as driving under the influence of alcohol or having unprotected sex, have dropped, the prevalence of risky behavior among teenagers remains high, and there has been no decline in adolescents’ risk behavior in several years ( Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2006). Thus, while considerable progress has been made in the prevention and treatment of disease and chronic illness among this age group, similar gains have not been made with respect to reducing the morbidity and mortality that result from risky and reckless behavior ( Hein, 1988). It is widely agreed among experts in the study of adolescent health and development that the greatest threats to the well-being of young people in industrialized societies come from preventable and often self-inflicted causes, including automobile and other accidents (which together account for nearly half of all fatalities among American youth), violence, drug and alcohol use, and sexual risk-taking ( Blum & Nelson-Mmari, 2004 Williams et al., 2002). The differing timetables of these changes make mid-adolescence a time of heightened vulnerability to risky and reckless behavior.Īdolescent Risk-Taking as a Public Health Problem These changes occur across adolescence and young adulthood and are seen in structural and functional changes within the prefrontal cortex and its connections to other brain regions.
Risk-taking declines between adolescence and adulthood because of changes in the brain’s cognitive control system – changes which improve individuals’ capacity for self-regulation. First, why does risk-taking increase between childhood and adolescence? Second, why does risk-taking decline between adolescence and adulthood? Risk-taking increases between childhood and adolescence as a result of changes around the time of puberty in the brain’s socio-emotional system leading to increased reward-seeking, especially in the presence of peers, fueled mainly by a dramatic remodeling of the brain’s dopaminergic system. Two fundamental questions motivate this review.
View the complete list of the Rock Hall's "In Memoriam" honorees below and watch the video clip further down the page.This article proposes a framework for theory and research on risk-taking that is informed by developmental neuroscience. In addition to the late musicians mentioned at the top of the page, New York Dolls' Sylvain Sylvain, Mountain's Leslie West, Cinderella's Jeff LaBar, The Animals' Hilton Valentine, Moody Blues' Graeme Edge, Uriah Heep's Ken Hensley and John Lawton, Megaforce Records co-founder Marsha Zazula and many, many more were all honored during the segment. For as much as there was to celebrate, sadly, there was also a lot to mourn as countless musicians' names and faces flashed across the screen while the nearly five-minute "In Memoriam" reel played in front of the audience members, who were in attendance for the ceremony's taping that actually took place on Oct.