The Development of Risk-Taking Behaviors: A Multi-Perspective Review

The current paper reviews four research perspectives that have been used to investigate the development of risk-taking. Cognitive developmental research has investigated the development of decision-making capacities that potentially underlie risk-taking development, including sensitivity to risk, probability estimation, and perceptions of vulnerability. Emotional development research has found that affective decision-making and emotional regulation skills improve with development through adolescence. Psychobiological research has analyzed the cognitive and affective neurological and biochemical bases of risk-taking, and their development. Social developmental research has explored the effects of parent–child relationship quality, parenting strategies, and peer influences on the emergence of risk-taking tendencies. Although they have remained largely independent, it is argued throughout that factors within each of these perspectives interact to influence the probability that an individual will engage in risky activities, which should be the topic of future research.