Executive Functions in Late Adolescence and Early Adulthood and Their Relationship with Risk-Taking Behavior

View/ Open
File version
Accepted Manuscript (AM)
Author(s)
Ogilvie, JM
Shum, DHK
Stewart, A
Year published
2020
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Executive functions (EF) continue developing throughout adolescence, with immaturity in EF theorized to underlie risk-taking. 129 older adolescents and young adults (aged 17 to 22 years) were assessed using a battery of cool and hot EF tasks, and a behavioral measure of risk-taking propensity. Minimal age-related differences in EF performance were evident, confirming they were largely functionally mature by mid-adolescence. Inconsistent with the predictions of imbalance models of adolescent development, weaker EF was not associated with greater risk-taking propensity. The findings suggest that during later adolescence and ...
View more >Executive functions (EF) continue developing throughout adolescence, with immaturity in EF theorized to underlie risk-taking. 129 older adolescents and young adults (aged 17 to 22 years) were assessed using a battery of cool and hot EF tasks, and a behavioral measure of risk-taking propensity. Minimal age-related differences in EF performance were evident, confirming they were largely functionally mature by mid-adolescence. Inconsistent with the predictions of imbalance models of adolescent development, weaker EF was not associated with greater risk-taking propensity. The findings suggest that during later adolescence and early adulthood, not all forms of risk-taking are associated with EF.
View less >
View more >Executive functions (EF) continue developing throughout adolescence, with immaturity in EF theorized to underlie risk-taking. 129 older adolescents and young adults (aged 17 to 22 years) were assessed using a battery of cool and hot EF tasks, and a behavioral measure of risk-taking propensity. Minimal age-related differences in EF performance were evident, confirming they were largely functionally mature by mid-adolescence. Inconsistent with the predictions of imbalance models of adolescent development, weaker EF was not associated with greater risk-taking propensity. The findings suggest that during later adolescence and early adulthood, not all forms of risk-taking are associated with EF.
View less >
Journal Title
Developmental Neuropsychology
Copyright Statement
This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Developmental Neuropsychology, 24 Oct 2020, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: https://doi.org/10.1080/87565641.2020.1833885
Note
This publication has been entered in Griffith Research Online as an advanced online version.
Subject
Neurosciences
Psychology
Cognitive and computational psychology