Citation

Duell N, Steinberg L. Child Dev. Perspect. 2019; 13(1): 48-52.

Affiliation

Temple University.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/cdep.12310

PMID

30774707

PMCID

PMC6371981

Abstract

Adolescents are more likely to take risks than children or adults. This propensity can be directed toward negative (illegal and dangerous) or positive (socially acceptable and constructive) risk behaviors. Adolescents who take positive risks include teenagers winning Olympic medals for landing snowboard tricks and students protesting gun violence on a national platform. Yet little is known about the nature of positive risk taking because much of the research on adolescent risk taking has focused on negative risks, such as substance use or delinquency. In this article, we offer a theoretical model of positive risk taking, briefly review research on positive risk taking, and discuss theoretical correlates of positive risk taking based on models of adolescent risk taking. We aim to identify positive risks as a unique class of socially acceptable risks in which youth engage in addition to negative risks.

Language: en

Keywords

adolescence; adolescent risk taking; positive risk taking