Pubertal Maturation, Sensation Seeking, and Socio-Affectively Motivated Behavior: Investigating Developmental Contributors to Risk-Taking Tendencies

This research examines some of the developmental processes that may help to explain risk-taking tendencies in adolescent girls. In particular, I investigated key aspects of a social and affective neuroscience theory of adolescence in which pubertal development predicts an increased appetitive drive for exciting affective experiences and for social admiration. Participants were 63 girls ages 10-14 (Mage = 12.74) who participated in laboratory measures and completed at-home saliva sample collection. The Pubertal Development Scale (PDS) and basal hormone levels (testosterone, estradiol, DHEA) measured pubertal maturation. Overbidding on a modified Auction Task for adolescents captured socio-affectively motivated behavior at the expense of strategic decision making. Sensation seeking, impulsivity, and resistance to peer influence were assessed via self-report. Covariates were age, verbal intelligence, and socioeconomic status. PDS predicted sensation seeking; PDS, testosterone, and sensation seeking each predicted overbidding on the Auction Task. Sensation seeking was least predictive of overbidding on the Auction Task at low levels of resistance to peer influence. In addition, PDS, testosterone, sensation seeking, and impulsivity were each associated with persistent overbidding over the course of the Auction Task. Results provide additional evidence for the association between pubertal development and sensation seeking, and highlight pubertal adolescent girls' drive for the affective experience of gaining social status. Results also suggest an association between pubertal maturation and the persistence of socio-affectively motivated behavior (perhaps due to social reinforcement learning), with patterns of nonstrategic decision making that otherwise would appear irrational. This research contributes to our understanding of the developmental underpinnings of both prosocial and problematic real-world risk behavior