Decision-making under risk in adolescents: Further evidence of the role of probabilistic reasoning

Little empirical evidence exists on the relationship between probabilistic reasoning and decision-making under risk among adolescents (e.g., Huizenga, Crone, & Jansen, 2007; van Duijvenvoorde, Jansen, Visser, & Huizenga, 2010), who are characterized by risk-taking behaviors (Reyna, Chapman, Dougherty, & Confrey, 2012). Indeed, typical during adolescence are behaviors such as gambling, binge drinking, smoking cigarettes, abusing drugs, having casual sex partners or engaging in unprotected sex, engaging in violent and other criminal behavior, and having fatal or serious automobile crashes due to reckless driving or driving under the infl uence of alcohol (Albert & Steinberg, 2011; Boyer, 2006; Reyna & Farley, 2006; Steinberg, 2008).