Risk-Taking Behaviors of Young Children: The Role of Children's and Parents' Socioemotional and Cognitive Control Systems.

Abstract

To prevent young children's injuries, studies have considered both child (e.g., temperament, age, sex) and parent factors (e.g., parental supervision and style, attachment) associated with risk-taking behaviors. Building on risk-taking theory literature, Jonas and Kochanska (Jonas & Kochanska, Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 46:1573-1583, 2018) adapted the dual systems model (Steinberg, Developmental Review 28:78-106, 2008) to children and suggested that risk-taking propensity arises from an imbalance between the overactivation of the child's socioemotional system (sensation seeking or traits of surgency) and the lower cognitive control system (lack of self-regulation or of effortful control). However, from an intergenerational transmission perspective, it is relevant to consider the role both parents' and the children's socioemotional and cognitive control systems have on a child's risk-taking behaviors. The current longitudinal study is the first to examines sensation seeking and lack of self-regulation in parents in addition to the child's surgency-effortful control imbalance to understand the child's risk-taking behaviors. The sample comprised 177 two-parent families (89 boys) observed at two time points (child age ranges: 12-18 months and 24-30 months). Both parents provided sociodemographic information and completed self-reported questionnaires on sensation seeking and self-regulation, child's temperament and risk-taking behaviors. Results showed that fathers' higher sensation-seeking and mothers' lack of self-regulation were associated with higher children's risk-taking behaviors. After controlling for these parent factors and child sex, child surgency-effortful imbalance was strongly associated with higher children's risk-taking behaviors. An adapted dual systems model including both parents (sensation seeking and self-regulation) and children (surgency-effortful imbalance) seems a promising avenue to a fuller understanding of children's risk-taking behaviors.