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Risk Taking and Self-Regulation in Children: Cross-sectional and repeated assessments using a computer-based gambling game

Published: 26 June 2018 Publication History

Abstract

Risk-taking, when unregulated by good executive function, may predispose youth to potentially dangerous behaviors such as substance abuse, unsafe sex practices, and criminal activity. The computer-based Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) has been widely used to study risk-taking propensity and predict real-world risky behaviors. We administered the youth version BART-Y to 6,929 children between grades K-8 and hypothesize that executive function, a cognitive skillset for self-regulation controlled by the frontal lobe, improves risk tolerance. Our preliminary results show that BART Total Points increased across grades and also significantly improved (p < 0.001) over repeated trials, supporting our proposition that risk tolerance is strengthened in parallel with cognitive development.

References

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Aklin, Will M., et al. "Evaluation of Behavioral Measures of Risk Taking Propensity with Inner City Adolescents." Behaviour Research and Therapy, vol. 43, no. 2, 2005, pp. 215--228.
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Bornovalova, Marina A., et al. "Differences in Impulsivity and Risk-Taking Propensity between Primary Users of Crack Cocaine and Primary Users of Heroin in a Residential Substance-Use Program." Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, vol. 13, no. 4, 2005, pp. 311--318.
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Crowley, Thomas J, et al. "A Risk-Taking Set in a Novel Task Among Adolescents With Serious Conduct and Substance Problems." Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, vol. 45, no. 2, 2006, pp. 175--183.
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Hanson, Karen L, et al. "Adolescent Marijuana Users Have Elevated Risk-Taking on the Balloon Analog Risk Task." Journal of Psychopharmacology, vol. 28, no. 11, 2014, pp. 1080--1087.
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Lejuez, C. W., et al. "Evaluation of a Behavioral Measure of Risk Taking: The Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART)." Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, vol. 8, no. 2, 2002, pp. 75--84.
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Lejuez, C.w., et al. "Evaluation of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) as a Predictor of Adolescent Real-World Risk-Taking Behaviours." Journal of Adolescence, vol. 26, no. 4, 2003, pp. 475--479.
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Lejuez, C. W., et al. "Reliability and Validity of the Youth Version of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART-Y) in the Assessment of Risk-Taking Behavior Among Inner-City Adolescents." Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, vol. 36, no. 1, 2007, pp. 106--111.
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Lejuez, C. W., et al. "The Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) Differentiates Smokers and Nonsmokers." Experimental & Clinical Psychopharmacology, vol. 11, no. 1, 2003, pp. 26--33.
[9]
Wexler, Bruce E, et al. "Cognitive Priming and Cognitive Training: Immediate and Far Transfer to Academic Skills in Children." Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 12 Sept. 2016
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White, Tara L., et al. "Test-Retest Characteristics of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART)." Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, vol. 16, no. 6, 2008, pp. 565--57

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PETRA '18: Proceedings of the 11th PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments Conference
June 2018
591 pages
ISBN:9781450363907
DOI:10.1145/3197768
Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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  • NSF: National Science Foundation

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 26 June 2018

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Author Tags

  1. Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART)
  2. executive function
  3. risk-tolerance

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