Differential Susceptibility for Adolescents’ Development of Risk-Taking Behavior: A Time-Varying Approach

Armstrong-Carter, Emma, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Abstract

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Eva H Telzer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist, Dr. Emma Armstrong-Carter, studying the development of adolescent’ risk-taking behavior. Adolescents are renowned for engaging in high levels of risk-taking behavior such as unsafe driving, alcohol and drug use, and risky sexual behaviors that can compromise their physical, emotional, and academic wellbeing. Adolescents who grow up in contexts of socioeconomic disadvantage are more likely to engage in heightened risk-taking behaviors due to environmental stressors and resource limitations. However, little is known about which factors protect adolescents or make adolescents particularly susceptible to heightened risk-taking behavior in contexts of socioeconomic disadvantage. This research will advance fundamental scientific knowledge about adolescent’ risk-taking behavior by investigating whether adolescents are more neurologically susceptible for risk taking at some time points compared to others. Specifically, we will investigate whether differential neural susceptibility for risk-taking behavior (1) varies within adolescents across years, and (2) varies within adolescents across days. We will use a novel longitudinal, within-subjects research design with repeated neuroimaging and electroencephalogram measurements. By integrating cognitive neuroscience methods and adolescents’ behavioral assessments, this project will help to shed light on a crucial and ongoing social problem: how to reduce the effects of persistent inequalities on youth, and promote adolescents’ positive development across contexts. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.