The Role of Deliberative Decision Making, Parenting, and Friends in Adolescent Risk Behaviors

Adolescents may engage in risk behaviors that jeopardize their futures. Although adolescent risk-taking has long been attributed
to faulty decision making, surprisingly little research has directly examined this link. This study examined the role of deliberative
decision making (the tendency to consider options and consequences before making a decision) and social contextual variables
(parenting and friend influences) in alcohol and drug use, risky sex, and delinquency. Participants were 7,748 adolescents
(50% female) in grades 7–11 from the Add Health dataset (M age = 14.87, SD = 1.54). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that deliberative decision making and contextual variables
were associated with risk behavior concurrently and 1 year later. Furthermore, deliberative decision making interacted with
social contextual variables in some models, indicating that deliberative decision making may be especially important in certain
contexts. These findings suggest that both cognitive and social factors need to be considered to explain adolescents’ decisions
to engage in risk behavior.