Person × environment interactions on adolescent delinquency: Sensation seeking,peer deviance and parental monitoring

Sensation seeking is a personality trait that is robustly correlated with delinquent behavior in adolescence. The current study tested specific contextual factors hypothesized to facilitate, exacerbate or attenuate this risk factor for adolescent delinquency. Individual differences in sensation seeking, peer deviance, parental monitoring and self-reported delinquent behavior were assessed in a sample of 470 adolescents. Peer deviance partially mediated the effects of sensation seeking and parental monitoring on adolescent delinquency. We also found evidence for a three-way interaction between sensation seeking, peer deviance and parental monitoring, such that the highest rates of delinquency occurred from the concurrence of high sensation seeking, high peer deviance, and low levels of parental monitoring. Results highlight the importance of considering peer- and family-level processes when evaluating personality risk and problematic adolescent behavior.     

Sensation seeking, aggressiveness, and adolescent reckless behavior

Sensation seeking and aggressiveness were hypothesized to contribute to the developmental basis of reckless behavior in adolescence. This hypothesis was investigated in two studies, one on high school students and the other on college students. Sensation seeking was found to be related to every type of reckless behavior, including five types of automobile driving, sex without contraception, sex with someone known only casually, number of sexual partners, alcohol and drug use, vandalism, and theft. Aggressiveness was related to several of the driving variables, as well as to vandalism and theft. For every type of reckless behavior, frequencies of reckless behavior were as high or higher for the college students than for the high school students. Findings are discussed in relation to socialization in the culture of the American middle-class.     

感觉寻求对工读生毒品使用的影响：有中介的调节效应

以523名工读生为调查对象,考察工读生毒品使用特点,并在控制相关人口学变量后,探讨感觉寻求、压力性生活事件、结交不良同伴与工读生毒品使用的关系。结果显示：（1）工读生的毒品使用行为严重,34.2%的工读生曾使用过毒品,毒品使用呈现低龄化、以吸食新型毒品为主的趋势。（2）工读生的感觉寻求是毒品使用的风险因素。（3）压力性生活事件对感觉寻求与毒品使用之间的关系具有风险增强的调节效应。（4）这种调节效应以结交不良同伴为中介变量。因此,感觉寻求对工读生毒品使用的影响是有中介的调节效应。研究结果对青少年毒品使用的预防和干预有重要的理论价值和参考价值。     

药物成瘾者的感觉寻求人格特征

药物成瘾具有明显的心理成因,其中,成瘾者的人格特点,特别是感觉寻求人格特质,是导致药物成瘾的重要病原性因素。中脑边缘体多巴胺系统是感觉寻求行为与药物成瘾行为共同的脑奖赏系统,而多巴胺受体的遗传表达至少部分建立在个体执行新奇寻求和药物成瘾的行为上。感觉寻求特质对药物成瘾的作用受环境因素（父母,同伴）调节。文章也评述了感觉寻求相关研究所采用的测量工具。     

Individual differences in the development of sensation seeking and impulsivity during adolescence: further evidence for a dual systems model

Consistent with social neuroscience perspectives on adolescent development, previous cross-sectional research has found diverging mean age-related trends for sensation seeking and impulsivity during adolescence. The present study uses longitudinal data on 7,640 youth from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth Children and Young Adults, a nationally representative sample assessed biennially from 1994 to 2006. Latent growth curve models were used to investigate mean age-related changes in self-reports of impulsivity and sensation seeking from ages 12 to 24 years, as well individual differences in these changes. Three novel findings are reported. First, impulsivity and sensation seeking showed diverging patterns of longitudinal change at the population level. Second, there was substantial person-to-person variation in the magnitudes of developmental change in both impulsivity and sensation seeking, with some teenagers showing rapid changes as they matured and others maintaining relatively constant levels with age. Finally, the correlation between age-related changes in impulsivity and sensation seeking was modest and not significant. Together, these results constitute the first support for the dual systems model of adolescent development to derive from longitudinal behavioral data.     

Generalized others and imaginary audiences: A neo-Meadian approach to adolescent egocentrism

Piaget’s conception of adolescent egocentrism, as interpreted and extended by Elkind (1967) is discussed, and research that has related Elkind’s egocentric ideations of personal fable and imaginary audience to age and intellectual development is considered. Alternative theories of adolescent egocentrism and its decentration are examined, and a neo-Meadian framework is discussed that understands the imaginary audience ideation of adolescents as a possibly functional, highly variable response to the complex task of coordinating individual and social perspectives as part of the adolescent’s search for identity.     

The effect of age and sensation seeking on pedestrian crossing safety in a virtual reality street

A wide range of individual, interpersonal and environmental factors influence the safety of pedestrians crossing the street, including human development (children take more risks than adolescents and adults) and sensation seeking (individuals higher in sensation seeking have greater risk). The interaction between those two variables has not been carefully studied, however. Does the effect of sensation seeking on pedestrian safety vary across human development as cognitive and other skills improve? This study investigated the primary effects of age and sensation seeking, plus their joint effects, on pedestrian crossing in a virtual reality environment. 209 children (10–13 years old), adolescents (14–18 years old) and young adults (20–24 years old) screened to be high and low level in sensation seeking participated. A 3 (age group: child vs adolescent vs young adult) × 2 (sensation seeking: high vs low) × 2 (traffic condition: easy vs harder crossing) mixed factorial design was conducted. Three pedestrian safety outcomes – start delay, missed opportunities and dangerous crossings – were considered. Results showed that when the traffic condition was easier to cross within, the start delay to enter traffic gaps was significantly shorter for children than for adolescents and young adults. There were no significant differences across age groups when the traffic condition was harder to cross within. Pedestrians also missed more opportunities to cross the road when the traffic condition was harder to cross within. Pedestrians low in sensation seeking missed more opportunities to cross than those high in sensation seeking. All age groups had more dangerous crossings during the harder crossing scenario than in the easier one, and adolescents had more dangerous crossings than young adults or children. Finally, the results of hierarchical regression models predicting dangerous crossings showed that traffic condition had a significant predictive effect on children's dangerous crossing behavior, and both high sensation seeking and harder traffic conditions predicted adolescents’ dangerous crossing behavior. No included variables significantly predicted adults' dangerous crossing behavior. We conclude that both age and sensation-seeking contribute to pedestrian safety. The effect of sensation seeking does not vary widely by age group, but its effect on adolescents was somewhat stronger than in the other age groups studied.     

An examination of the relationships between cannabis use,driving under the influence of cannabis and risk-taking on the road

IntroductionSome studies have suggested that regular cannabis users appear to exhibit a general reckless driving style that may contribute to an inflated estimate of collisions related to driving under the influence of cannabis (DUIC) among this group.ObjectiveThis study investigated whether patterns of cannabis use would predict levels of self-reported unsafe driving behaviours and levels of performance observed in a driving simulator.MethodThe study investigated 48 young cannabis users with respect to frequency of cannabis consumption, alcohol use, driving exposure, self-reported dangerous driving habits, impulsivity, sensation seeking and performance in a driving simulator.ResultsCannabis use was positively associated with DUIC, with sensation seeking and with self-reports of risky driving. An ANOVA confirmed a significant effect of levels of consumption of cannabis among participants on self-report risk-taking in driving. Moreover, the observed behaviours during the simulation tasks correlated with risky driving habits, and with the self-reported frequency of driving in the hour following smoking cannabis or immediately after drinking alcohol.ConclusionSince cannabis usage and DUIC appear to be related to an overall reckless style of driving, it is proposed that public safety policies should be more holistic, simultaneously targeting multiple on-road dangerous behaviours for intervention.     

Not all risk taking behavior is bad: Associative sensitivity predicts learning during risk taking among high sensation seekers

Risk taking behavior can be both adaptive and maladaptive depending on context. The majority of studies on risk taking, however, focus on clinical populations and dangerous or harmful risk taking. Individual differences in learning during risk taking are rarely examined in relation to task performance. The present study examined risk taking and associated outcomes in an exploration-based instrumental learning task (Balloon Emotional Learning Task; BELT), which presented a series of balloons in which participants pump up for points. Consistent with prior work, sensation seeking predicted increased risk taking behavior. Importantly, however, a significant interaction between sensation seeking and associative sensitivity, an attentional construct defined as the frequency and remoteness of automatic cognitive activity, was found. Specifically, among individuals high in sensation seeking, associative sensitivity predicted fewer balloon explosions and an increase in points earned on the balloon condition with the most potential for feedback driven learning. Thus, these findings suggest that sensation seekers are a heterogeneous group, and secondary traits such as associative sensitivity moderate risk taking and learning according to context.     

Adolescents' reactions to hypothetical peer group conversations: evidence for an imaginary audience?

The theory of adolescent egocentrism holds that early adolescents have a distorted understanding of self-other relations; because of flaws in the traditional methods used to assess adolescent egocentrism, this notion has never received adequate empirical scrutiny. In the present research, the nature of early adolescent social cognition as characterized by that theory was investigated by examining age differences in judgments of hypothetical peer group conversations. In Study 1, children and early adolescents (N = 264) rated the attentiveness, criticalness, and admiration expressed in three conversations, in which the subject or a peer was mentioned in either an admiring, critical, or nonevaluative manner. In Study 2, a similar procedure was used with middle and late adolescents, as well as children and early adolescents (N = 187); two memory tasks were also administered to visit the issue of distortion in social cognition. In Study 3, a new sample (N = 1,019) representing the four age groups from Study 2 was presented with an ambiguous conversation and then asked to interpret who was the target (object of focus) and how that target was regarded. The findings from the three studies do not support the notion that adolescents believe others are attentive to and critical of their every move, or that their social cognition and perception is egocentric and distorted. Conceptual and methodological contributions are discussed, along with directions for additional research.     

Imaginary audience and personal fable: a brief review

A review of the literature was conducted on two aspects of adolescent egocentrism: the imaginary audience and the personal fable. Results yielded contradictory findings in most areas of the research. Reasons for these contradictions are explored and suggestions for future research presented.     

Predicting adolescent pedestrians’ behavioral intentions to follow the masses in risky crossing situations

Adolescent pedestrians are a major population at risk of being killed or injured in traffic accidents, especially in developing countries. In the current study, we examined the effects of age, gender, sensation seeking, and conformity tendency on Chinese adolescent pedestrians’ intention to cross the road against a traffic signal. A sample of 510 adolescents, aged 12–19 years, completed a series of questionnaires comprising (1) a demographic questionnaire, (2) scales which measured their tendency towards social conformity and sensation seeking, and (3) a questionnaire based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), which measured their intention to cross the road in two different traffic scenarios. One scenario depicted a situation where the crossing was consistent with other pedestrians’ behavior (Conformity scenario). In the second scenario, the road crossing was inconsistent with other pedestrians (Non-conformity scenario). Along with behavioral intentions, attitudes towards the behavior, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, anticipated affect, moral norms, and perceived risk were also assessed. In general, adolescent participants reported greater likelihood in crossing the road when other pedestrians were crossing the road as well (Conformity with the masses) and adolescents in middle school were more likely to cross than those in high school. A hierarchical regression model explained 30% of the variance in behavioral intention in the Non-conformity scenario and 40% of the variance in the Conformity scenario. For both scenarios, attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and anticipated affect emerged as common predictors. The theoretical and practical implications for these results are discussed.     

Genetically influenced change in sensation seeking drives the rise of delinquent behavior during adolescence

Sensation seeking is associated with an increased propensity for delinquency, and emerging research on personality change suggests that mean levels of sensation seeking increase substantially from childhood to adolescence. The current study tested whether individual differences in the rate of change of sensation seeking predicted within-person change in delinquent behavior and whether genetically influenced differences in rate of personality change accounted for this association. Sensation seeking and delinquent behavior were assessed biennially between ages 10-11 and 16-17 in a nationally representative sample of 7675 youths from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth: Children and Young Adults (CNLSY). Analyses using latent growth curve modeling found that within-person change in sensation seeking was significantly and positively correlated with within-person change in delinquency from childhood to adolescence. Furthermore, behavioral genetic analyses of a subset of 2562 sibling pairs indicated that there were substantial genetic influences on both initial levels of sensation seeking and change in sensation seeking during early adolescence, with over 80% of individual differences in change due to genetic factors. Finally, these genetically driven increases in sensation seeking were most important for predicting increases in delinquency, whereas environmental paths between sensation seeking and delinquency were not significant. These results suggest that developmental changes in delinquent behaviors during adolescence are driven by a genetically governed process of personality change.     

Dying for romance: risk taking as purposive behavior

Many approaches have been utilized to understand adolescent risk taking. The current research frames risk taking as a purposive behavior enacted with a specific goal in mind. Rather than assuming adolescent risk taking to be the result of arrogance or perceived invulnerability, adolescent risk taking is interpreted as a means to an end. Stemming from a Tolmanian framework, an alternative explanation for adolescent risk taking is tested: adolescents are willing to take risks to the extent that the risk is associated with a needed outcome - the greater the need for the outcome, the greater the willingness to take risks. To test the proposed hypothesis, 192 participants completed a survey about their need for a romantic relationship and their willingness to endure harm to obtain a romantic relationship. Data were collected at two time points. A hierarchical regression revealed that need for romance is a significant predictor of willingness to endure harm for romance, even after gender and sensation seeking are statistically controlled. Moreover, need for romance at T1 was shown to be predictive of harm for romance at T2. Results are supportive of taking a purposive - that is, Tolmanian - approach, as a means for interpreting adolescent behavior.     

An Assessment of the Psychometric Properties of the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale for Children

Sensation seeking is a trait that predicts a wide range of real-life risk behavior, such as substance abuse and gambling problems. Sensation seeking is often assessed with the Sensation Seeking Scale. Several adaptations of this questionnaire have been made, for example, to abbreviate it and to make it suitable for children. However, studies on sensation seeking in children are scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate sensation seeking in children (N = 158, M age = 11.4 years). The Brief Sensation Seeking Scale for Children (BSSS–C) was translated into Dutch and psychometric properties were examined. Internal consistency was high, and the factor structure showed close resemblance with previous research. Test–retest and split-half reliabilities were acceptable, as was convergent validity with self-reported symptoms of psychopathology (attention problems and aggressive behavior). Construct validity was adequate, with more sensation seeking in boys than in girls. No effects of age were found. To sum up, sensation seeking can be measured in children in a valid and reliable way. The correlation of sensation seeking with high-risk behaviors emphasizes the importance of assessment early in development.     

青少年的气质与烟酒使用:交互效应检验

考察气质(意志控制、愤怒挫折、感觉寻求)对青少年烟酒使用的主效应,气质与教养方式(权威、专制、纵容)对烟酒使用的交互效应以及气质间的交互效应.采用随机整群抽样的方法,选取660名青少年为被试,匿名完成气质问卷、教养方式问卷和烟酒使用问卷.结果显示:(1)在控制了性别、年龄、社会经济地位后,气质对青少年烟酒使用具有预测作用,低意志控制、高愤怒挫折、高感觉寻求正向预测烟酒使用;(2)教养方式调节部分气质因素与烟酒使用的关系,具体为:权威和专制教养缓冲感觉寻求的风险作用,符合风险缓冲模型;纵容教养增强感觉寻求的风险作用,符合风险增强模型;(3)气质内部在影响青少年烟酒使用时也存在交互作用,愤怒挫折增强感觉寻求的风险作用,符合风险增强模型.因此,烟酒使用是气质与教养方式及气质间交互作用的产物.     

Self‐monitoring and the propensity for risk

Apart from earlier research on sexual behavior, little is known about associations between self‐monitoring and engagement in risk behaviors. Our research verified that one component of self‐monitoring, public performing, is related to a range of risk behaviors. We then tested whether the greater engagement of high compared to low self‐monitoring individuals in risk behaviors could be attributed to: (a) greater discrepancies between perceptions of risk and reported risk behaviors for the high‐scoring group; or (b) higher levels of sensation seeking among high versus low self‐monitoring individuals. Data from a sample of 452 college students supported the second of these two explanations. Implications for self‐monitoring theory and measurement, as well as for adolescent and young adult risk behaviors, are discussed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sexual Sensation Seeking: Scale Development and Predicting AIDS-Risk Behavior Among Homosexually Active Men

Sensation seeking, the propensity to prefer exciting, optimal, and novel stimulation or arousal, is a potential mediating factor in sexual risk for human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV), the cause of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). However, the most widely used measure of sensation seeking, the Sensation Seeking Scale (Zuckerman, Kolin, Price, & Zoob. 1964). contains numerous culturally outdated items and items that do not pertain to sexual behavior, in this study, 106 homosexually active men completed newly developed measures of sensation seeking related to sexual and nonsexual experiences, as well as a measure of sexual compulsivity. Results show that the new scales were internally consistent and time-stable. Additional analyses demonstrated convergent, divergent, and discriminant validity for these scales, showing them to be of use as mediating variables in models of high-risk sexual behavior. Implications for HIV prevention and behavior change are discussed.     

未成年犯童年期受虐待程度与攻击行为的关系：有调节的中介模型

采用问卷法对广东省未成年犯管教所417名男性未成年犯进行调查,考察了自尊在未成年犯童年期受虐待程度与其攻击行为关系间的中介效应,以及感觉寻求在其中的调节作用。结果发现：（1）在控制了年龄、家庭月收入和父母受教育水平后,童年期受虐待程度可显著正向预测攻击行为;（2）自尊在童年期受虐待程度与攻击行为之间起部分中介作用;（3）感觉寻求显著调节自尊对攻击行为的影响,间接效应对于低感觉寻求的个体不显著,对于高感觉寻求的个体显著。     

Developing a Brief Sensation Seeking Scale for Children: Establishing Concurrent Validity With Video Game Use and Rule-Breaking Behavior

Despite the importance of life-cycle models to sensation seeking research, past studies have typically focused on adolescents and adults. This is especially problematic for researchers studying the role of media use in the development of risky behaviors (e.g., violent video game consumption and aggressive behavior). To facilitate research with child populations, a brief sensation seeking scale for children (BSSS-C) is developed and validated with a sample of fourth, fifth, and sixth graders (N = 136). The BSSS-C is found to be internally reliable (α = .82) as well as a strong predictor of several risky child behaviors. Higher sensation seeking children were more likely to play video games, including violent subgenres (e.g., shooters), and to enjoy playing video games that contained specific acts of violence (e.g., weapon use). Higher sensation seekers were also more likely to engage in rule-breaking behavior, such as bringing prohibited cell phones to school. The results suggest that sensation seeking may be related to risky behavior at a very young age.