Socioeconomic status and adolescents’ risk-taking behavior: No longitudinal link or differences by neurobiological activation when anticipating social rewards

Bibliographic Details
Title: Socioeconomic status and adolescents’ risk-taking behavior: No longitudinal link or differences by neurobiological activation when anticipating social rewards
Authors: Emma Armstrong-Carter, Seh-Joo Kwon, Nathan A. Jorgensen, Mitchell J. Prinstein, Kristen A. Lindquist, Eva H. Telzer
Source: Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Vol 72, Iss , Pp 101530- (2025)
Publisher Information: Elsevier, 2025.
Publication Year: 2025
Collection: LCC:Neurophysiology and neuropsychology
Subject Terms: Risk-taking, Adolescence, Socioeconomic status, Differential susceptibility, Ventral striatum, Within-subject analyses, Neurophysiology and neuropsychology, QP351-495
More Details: This longitudinal, preregistered study investigated the hypothesis that adolescents who are raised in socioeconomic adversity engage in relatively more health-compromising risk-taking behavior during years when they show relatively heightened anticipation to social rewards. We operationalized this on a neurobiological level as activity of the ventral striatum, a region of the brain that is involved in social reward processing. A sample of 170 racially and socioeconomically diverse adolescents (12years at Wave 1, 53 % women, 35 % Latine, 29 % White, 22 % Black) completed annual assessments for up to five years, yielding 478 total observations. During annual fMRI scans, adolescents completed a Social Incentive Delay task during which we measured activation of the ventral striatum in response to anticipating social rewards relative to social punishments. Adolescents also self-reported risk-taking behavior annually, and we linked measures of baseline socioeconomic status via parent report and neighborhood census data. Our preregistered hypotheses were not supported; baseline socioeconomic status was not associated significantly with risk-taking behavior, even during years when adolescents were more attuned to social rewards. Sensitivity analyses examined the role of the anterior insula and amygdala and also yielded null results. Adolescents’ risk-taking behavior may not be as closely linked to socioeconomic status or social reward activation as previously hypothesized.
Document Type: article
File Description: electronic resource
Language: English
ISSN: 1878-9293
Relation: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878929325000258; https://doaj.org/toc/1878-9293
DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2025.101530
Access URL: https://doaj.org/article/241e70561daa4665819ea72189fa126a
Accession Number: edsdoj.241e70561daa4665819ea72189fa126a
Database: Directory of Open Access Journals
More Details
ISSN:18789293
DOI:10.1016/j.dcn.2025.101530
Published in:Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
Language:English