Towards a hybrid criminological and psychological model of risk behavior: The developmental neuro-ecological risk-taking model (DNERM)

Defoe, Ivy N.

doi:10.1016/j.dr.2021.100995

Cited by 15 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Some psychological scientists have emphasized the cultural component of this definition. Namely, Defoe (2021) defined mal-adaptive risk behaviors (e.g., substance use and delinquency) as "behaviors that are associated with some probability of a 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.945775 Frontiers in Psychology 03 frontiersin.org maladaptive outcome-that is an outcome that can impede the acquisition of culturally-accepted goals" (Defoe, 2021;p. 2).…”

Section: The Ongoing Question Of What Risk-taking Entails: a Cross-na...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…What makes this period even more fascinating, is that there has never really been a consensus on which ages the adolescent phase encompasses. Nevertheless, many scholars, especially developmental scientists (e.g., Crone and Dahl, 2012 ; Steinberg et al, 2018 ; Defoe, 2021 ), posit that adolescence begins approximately at the start of puberty, around the ages 10–12, which is also the age when most youth in the Western-World transition from primary school to secondary school.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, as of 2014, in the Netherlands young adults until the age of 23 can be imposed a youth justice sentence in criminal court, based on the personality of the accused or the circumstances under which the offense was committed ( Matthews et al, 2018 ; Rap et al, 2020 ). In sum, when considering what adolescence entails, the culture(s) within a country is a decisive factor, and historically, culture impacts legislation ( Defoe, 2021 ), which again in turn impacts how the span of the adolescent period is defined. The concept of adolescence can therefore be seen as a social construct that is influenced by the historical, cultural and societal context.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this review we will discuss two relevant theories, namely the Lifespan Wisdom Model ( Romer et al, 2017 ) and the Developmental Neuro-ecological Risk-taking Model (DNERM; Defoe, 2021 ). The gap in theoretical substantiation is in turn also reflected in the few empirical studies that have investigated this phenomenon.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Adolescents’ own views on their risk behaviors, and the potential effects of being labeled as risk-takers: A commentary and review

2022

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Adolescents are stereotypically viewed as risk-takers (“stereotypical risk-takers”) in science, mainstream media, fictional literature and in everyday life. However, increasing research suggests that adolescents do not always engage in “heightened” risk-taking, and adolescents’ own perspectives (motives) on risk-taking are largely neglected in research. Hence, this paper is a commentary and review with two aims. First, taking a cross-national perspective, we discuss the definition of adolescence and risk behavior. We argue that much of the research on what drives adolescent risk behavior (e.g., substance use) focuses on the harms that this behavior promotes rather than on the need to explore and grow into adulthood. Thereafter we summarize the dominant approach to studying motives behind substance use, which has mostly considered young adults, and which has typically not focused on adolescents’ own self-generated motives. The few empirical studies (including one of our qualitative studies) on adolescents’ own motivations for engaging in risk behavior (i.e., cannabis use, alcohol use, and tobacco smoking) show that the most frequently mentioned motives by adolescents were being cool/tough, enjoyment, belonging, having fun and experimenting and coping. Interestingly, the “cool/tough identity” motive is virtually overlooked in research on adolescent risk-taking. The above-mentioned motives, however, generally support newer theories, such as the Developmental Neuro-Ecological Risk-taking Model (DNERM) and the Life-span Wisdom Model that suggest that adolescents’ motivations to engage in risk-taking include experimentation, identity development, explorative behavior, and sensation seeking, all of which run counter to the stereotype of adolescents engaging in risk-taking due to “storm and stress.” Hence, we also briefly consider additional recent attempts to study positive forms of risk taking. Second, extrapolating from sociological/criminological theories on labeling, we suggest that caution is warranted when (inaccurately) labeling adolescents as the “stereotypical risk-takers,” because this can instigate a risk-taking identity in adolescents and/or motivate them to associate with risk-taking peers, which could in turn lead to maladaptive forms of risk-taking. Empirical research testing these hypotheses is needed. To conclude we argue that research on adolescent risk-taking could further benefit from considering adolescent’s own motivations, which is also in line with the participatory approach advocated by international children’s rights standards.

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Section: The Ongoing Question Of What Risk-taking Entails: a Cross-na...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Adolescents’ own views on their risk behaviors, and the potential effects of being labeled as risk-takers: A commentary and review

2022

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“…Survey data on the other hand shows that risk-taking increases across adolescence and might be highest among young adults [22][23][24] . This difference is because survey data relates to behaviour in people's everyday environment, which undergoes a dramatic changes during adolescence [25][26][27] , whereas experiments put everybody into the same controlled environment 7 . Because a change in adolescents' everyday environment also brings new uncertainties, researches suggested that adolescents may have been equipped by evolution to adapt to these uncertainties 28,29 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uncertainty drives social information use in risky choice across adolescence

Ciranka¹,

Bos²

2022

Preprint

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Adolescents are known for their propensity to take risks, which may be especially strong in social contexts. People are known to use social information more when uncertain of how to decide. How feelings of uncertainty relate to the development of social susceptibility and risky choice across adolescence is unknown. To understand the effects of uncertainty on social influence, we introduce a novel task that measures risky choice under different levels of uncertainty, either with or without observing someone else's advice. Testing 161 adolescents and young adults (10-26 years of age), we show that risky-choice, social information use and subjective uncertainty decrease across development. We also fit a model wherein social information is used to reduce uncertainty to participants’ choices according to Bayesian principles. This model revealed that age-related changes in uncertainty fully accounted for age-related changes in social information use. Our results imply that uncertainty is a key mechanism in adolescents’ social susceptibility in risky behaviour.

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Do Adolescents Engage in Delinquency to Cope with Depressive Symptoms? Revisiting the Longitudinal Link Between Delinquency and Depressive Symptoms While Considering Moderation by Ethnicity, Adolescent Phase, and Gender

Defoe

Dubas

Aken

2023

J Dev Life Course Criminology

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The co-occurrence between delinquency and depression in adolescence is well-documented. However, Psychology (Failure model and Acting out Model) and Criminology (Strain Theory) theories are divided on the potential longitudinal link between these two behaviors and empirical studies show mixed findings. The present 3-wave longitudinal study tested these opposing theories, using cross-lagged panel modeling on an ethnically and socio-economically diverse sample (T1: N=602; Mage= 13.50 (SD = 1.23); 46.4% female). Furthermore, we investigated whether moderation by ethnicity (non-Western ethnic minority versus Western ethnic majority [i.e., ethnically Dutch]) or adolescent phase by gender (early adolescent girls versus mid-late adolescent girls versus early adolescent boys versus mid-late adolescent boys) were present. For the total sample, results showed that higher levels of delinquency predicted lower levels of depressive symptoms, consistent with Strain theory that suggests that adolescents may resort to delinquency to cope with depression. As for significant moderation links: (1) higher levels of delinquency predicted lower levels of depressive symptoms (Strain theory), especially in mid-late adolescent girls, (2) higher levels of delinquency predicted higher levels of depressive symptoms (Failure model) for early adolescent girls, and (3) higher levels of depressive symptoms predicted higher levels of delinquency (Acting out model and Strain theory) for mid-late adolescent boys. Although no ethnicity moderation effects were found, consistent with strain theories, ethnic minority adolescents reported significantly more depressive symptoms (T1 and T3) but not higher delinquency levels than ethnic majority adolescents. Thus, the mixed findings found in previous studies for the link between delinquency and depression could be because gender-by-adolescent-phase moderation effects were overlooked. Implications for the Acting out model, Failure model, and Strain theories are discussed.

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Towards a hybrid criminological and psychological model of risk behavior: The developmental neuro-ecological risk-taking model (DNERM)

Cited by 15 publications

References 67 publications

Adolescents’ own views on their risk behaviors, and the potential effects of being labeled as risk-takers: A commentary and review

Adolescents’ own views on their risk behaviors, and the potential effects of being labeled as risk-takers: A commentary and review

Uncertainty drives social information use in risky choice across adolescence

Do Adolescents Engage in Delinquency to Cope with Depressive Symptoms? Revisiting the Longitudinal Link Between Delinquency and Depressive Symptoms While Considering Moderation by Ethnicity, Adolescent Phase, and Gender

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