Human Growth and Development / Unit 9 HGD 1252 review, 2 to 3 minutes
Why Teens Take Risks
The idea
Three explanations compete for why adolescents take more risks than children or adults. The oldest is Elkind's personal fable: teens feel invincible, so they discount danger. The evidence has not been kind to it: adolescents judge the riskiness of choices about as accurately as adults do. The second is informational: teens take risks because they do not know the dangers. The same evidence undercuts it, and programmes that only raise awareness of risk are therefore expected to help little, as Steinberg has argued. The third is Steinberg's dual systems model: the reward system, driven by dopamine and, for social reward, oxytocin, matures earlier than the prefrontal control system, so early and middle adolescence become a window of vulnerability. Peers amplify the imbalance: teen drivers take more risks with friends present, and teens commit crimes in groups far more than adults do. The model is influential but contested. Much teen risk taking is reasoned rather than reactive, with reasoned risk takers showing better working memory and more future orientation, which fits poorly with a picture of brakes that do not yet work.
In practice
A sixteen-year-old who drives carefully alone and recklessly with three friends in the car: the same driver in two situations.
Where people slip
The misconception is that a single cause explains teen risk. Invincibility and ignorance do not fit the evidence well; the reward-and-peers account fits better but does not cover all of it. The practical implication, that awareness-only programmes help little, is Steinberg's argument, reported rather than advised. Unit one's caution applies: brain differences correlate with behaviour, but the step from brain images to explanations of everyday choices is an inference. For the exam, know the dual systems model, the role of peers, and the finding that teens perceive risk about as adults do.
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