Socioeconomic Risk for Adolescent Cognitive Control and Emerging Risk‐Taking Behaviors

This study examined whether cognitive control mediated the association between socioeconomic status (SES; composite of income‐to‐needs ratio and parent education) and changes in risk‐taking behaviors. The sample included 167 dyads of adolescents (53% male; M_age = 14.07 years at Time 1) and their parents, assessed annually across 4 years. Parents reported socioeconomic variables at Time 1. Adolescents reported risk‐taking behaviors at Times 1 and 4, and completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging cognitive control task at Times 2 and 3. Lower SES was associated with lower behavioral (but not neural) cognitive control, which was associated with increases in risk‐taking behaviors. The findings suggest that elevated socioeconomic risk may compromise cognitive control which can cascade into maladaptive behaviors in adolescence.     

Neural Interaction Between Risk Sensitivity and Cognitive Control Predicting Health Risk Behaviors Among Late Adolescents

The developmental period of adolescence is characterized by increasing incidence of health risk behaviors (HRBs). Based on theoretical models that emphasize the moderating role of cognitive control, this study examined how neural correlates of cognitive control and risk sensitivity interact to predict HRBs among late adolescents (17–20 years). Neuroimaging data indicate that risk‐related hemodynamic activity in the anterior insula during anticipation of uncertain outcomes predicts HRBs among late adolescents exhibiting greater dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) activity during a cognitive interference task but not among late adolescents requiring less dACC activity. These results present neural evidence for a significant moderating effect of cognitive control on the link between risk sensitivity and HRBs among late adolescents.     

Longitudinal Associations Among Religiousness,Delay Discounting,and Substance Use Initiation in Early Adolescence

Prior research indicates that religiousness is related negatively to adolescent health risk behaviors, yet how such protective effects operate is not well understood. This study examined the longitudinal associations among organizational and personal religiousness, delay discounting, and substance use initiation (alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use). The sample was comprised of 106 early adolescents (10–13 years of age, 52% female) who were not using substances at Time 1. Path analyses suggested that high levels of personal religiousness at Time 1 were related to low levels of substance use at Time 2 (2.4 years later), mediated by low levels of delay discounting. Delay discounting appears to be an important contributor to the protective effect of religiousness on the development of substance use among adolescents.     

How Is Religiousness Associated With Adolescent Risk‐Taking? The Roles of Emotion Regulation and Executive Function

Existing literature has demonstrated an association between higher adolescent religiousness and lower risk‐taking via higher self‐regulation. This study sought to elucidate the roles of emotion regulation and executive function as parallel mediators in the link between religiousness and risk‐taking in a sample of 167 adolescents (mean age = 14.13 years, 52% male, 82% White at Time 1). Longitudinal results across three waves utilizing structural equation modeling indicated higher religiousness was associated with higher emotion regulation, whereas religiousness was not associated with executive function. Subsequently, higher emotion regulation and executive function were associated with lower risk‐taking. Emotion regulation mediated the association between religiousness and risk‐taking. The findings highlight religiousness as a contextual protective factor for adolescents.     

Religious Social Support Protects against Social Risks for Adolescent Substance Use

We used a social developmental perspective to identify how prominent social contexts influence substance use during adolescence. Longitudinal data were collected annually from 167 parent–adolescent dyads over four years. We investigated whether parent substance use was related to adolescent substance use directly and indirectly via peer substance use and whether these associations were moderated by religious social support. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis indicated significant moderated mediation: Greater parent substance use predicted increases in adolescent substance use indirectly via increased peer substance use when adolescent religious social support was low or average, but not high. These results suggest religious social support may protect adolescents against prominent social risks for intergenerational substance use.     

Parenting,emotion regulation,and externalizing symptomatology as adolescent antecedents to young adult health risk behaviors

This study used longitudinal data to elucidate how trajectories of negative parenting across adolescence are associated with young adult health risk behaviors (HRBs) by testing difficulties with emotion regulation and externalizing symptomatology as sequential underlying mediators. The sample included 167 adolescents (53% males, M_age = 14 at Time 1 and M_age = 18 at Time 5) who were assessed five times. Adolescents self-reported on negative parenting, emotion regulation, externalizing symptomatology, and engagement in HRBs. Results suggest that increasingly negative parenting across adolescence has adverse consequences for emotion regulation development and in turn, externalizing symptomatology, which confers risk for young adult HRBs. Results offer insights towards mechanisms for prevention and intervention and public health policy aimed at reducing the prevalence and consequences of engagement in HRBs.