Age differences in sensation seeking and impulsivity as indexed by behavior and self-report: Evidence for a dual systems model.

Abstract

It has been hypothesized that sensation seeking and impulsivity, which are often conflated, in fact develop along different timetables and have different neural underpinnings, and that the difference in their timetables helps account for heightened risk taking during adolescence. In order to test these propositions, the authors examined age differences in sensation seeking and impulsivity in a socioeconomically and ethnically diverse sample of 935 individuals between the ages of 10 and 30, using self-report and behavioral measures of each construct. Consistent with the authors' predictions, age differences in sensation seeking, which are linked to pubertal maturation, follow a curvilinear pattern, with sensation seeking increasing between 10 and 15 and declining or remaining stable thereafter. In contrast, age differences in impulsivity, which are unrelated to puberty, follow a linear pattern, with impulsivity declining steadily from age 10 on. Heightened vulnerability to risk taking in middle adolescence may be due to the combination of relatively higher inclinations to seek excitement and relatively immature capacities for self-control that are typical of this period of development.

A cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of reward-related brain activation: Effects of age, pubertal stage, and reward sensitivity

“…Previously, Galvan et al (2007) reported that neural responses to rewards in adolescence could be partly explained by individual differences in risk-taking behavior in everyday life. It was previously reported in a large behavioral developmental study including 935 participants between ages 10 and 30 that self-reported sensation seeking peaks in mid-adolescence (Steinberg et al, 2008). Possibly, findings in prior studies of heightened VS activation in adolescents compared to adults were driven especially by risk-seeking adolescents.…”

“…Neurobiological models of adolescent development have suggested that adolescents are more sensitive to rewards due to a relatively increased limbic response in combination with reduced down-regulation by the prefrontal cortex and other cortical areas (Ernst & Fudge, 2009;Nelson, Leibenluft, McClure, & Pine, 2005;Somerville, Jones, & Casey, 2010). Accordingly, these models suggest that such neurobiological changes may underlie typical adolescents' risky behaviors such as substance abuse, unsafe sexual behavior, and reckless driving (Dahl, 2004;Steinberg et al, 2008).…”

Pubertal development, personality, and substance use: A 10-year longitudinal study from childhood to adolescence.

“…This would suggest that impulse control, contrary to sensation seeking, could not explain or mediate the link between pubertal timing and possibly tempo and risky or problem behaviors. Indeed Steinberg (2007Steinberg ( , 2008 and Steinberg et al (2008) described the dual-systems model, which suggests that heightened risky behaviors observed in adolescence, including substance use, are the product of a relatively higher puberty-driven inclination to seek out sensations and excitement and a relatively immature ability to control impulses. The fact that impulse control typically develops slowly through adolescence and only reaches full maturity in early adulthood (Luna, Padmanabhan, & O'Hearn, 2010;Steinberg, 2010) suggests that early pubertal onset or faster pubertal tempo outpaces the capacity of the still immature impulse-control system to regulate puberty-driven sensation seeking.…”

A dual systems model of adolescent risk‐taking

“…The present article summarizes results from a program of research my colleagues and I have recently completed, designed to examine age differences in reward-seeking and cognitive control between the ages of 10 and 30 (Cauffman et al, 2010;Steinberg et al, 2008Steinberg et al, , 2009. It is the first study to span a wide enough age range to examine the developmental course of each phenomenon from preadolescence through early adulthood, to measure self-control and reward-seeking independently within the same sample, and to employ both self-report and performance measures.…”