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Cognitive Control as a Moderator of Temperamental Motivations Toward Adolescent Risk‐Taking Behavior
Author(s) -
Youssef George J.,
Whittle Sarah,
Allen Nicholas B.,
Lubman Dan I.,
Simmons Julian G.,
Yücel Murat
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.12480
Subject(s) - psychology , moderation , cognition , developmental psychology , temperament , valence (chemistry) , self control , clinical psychology , personality , social psychology , psychiatry , physics , quantum mechanics
Few studies have directly examined whether cognitive control can moderate the influence of temperamental positive and negative affective traits on adolescent risk‐taking behavior. Using a combined multimethod, latent variable approach to the assessment of adolescent risk‐taking behavior and cognitive control, this study examined whether cognitive control moderates the influence of temperamental surgency and frustration on risk‐taking behavior in a sample of 177 adolescents ( M age = 16.12 years, SD = 0.69). As predicted, there was a significant interaction between cognitive control and frustration , but not between cognitive control and surgency , in predicting risk‐taking behavior. These findings have important implications and suggest that the determinants of adolescent risk taking depend on the valence of the affective motivation for risk‐taking behavior.