Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS FEATURE

Sex and drugs and self-control: how the teen brain navigates risk

It’s not just about rebellion. Neuroscience is revealing adolescents’ rich and nuanced relationship with risky behaviour.
  1. Kerri Smith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Teen jumps across roof gap to another building.

Teenagers in Norway practise the urban sport parkour. Credit: Andrea Gjestvang/Panos

Cole Skinner was hanging from a wall above an abandoned quarry when he heard a car pull up. He and his friends bolted, racing along a narrow path on the quarry’s edge and hopping over a barbed-wire fence to exit the grounds.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 554, 426-428 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-02170-3

References

  1. Johnston, L. D. et al. Monitoring the Future: National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975–2016 — 2016 Overview, Key Findings on Adolescent Drug Use (Univ. Michigan, 2017); available at http://go.nature.com/2ngttbt

    Google Scholar 

  2. Chein, J., Albert, D., O’Brien, L., Uckert, K. & Steinberg, L. Dev. Sci. 14, F1–F10 (2011).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Telzer, E. H., Ichien, N. T. & Qu, Y. Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci. 10, 1383–1391 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Peake, S. J., Dishion, T. J., Stormshak, E. A., Moore, W. E. & Pfeifer, J. H. Neuroimage 82, 23–34 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Telzer, E. H., Miernicki, M. E. & Rudolph, K. D. Dev. Psychopathol. 30, 13–26 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. van Hoorn, J. et al. Res. Adolescence 26, 90–100 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Telzer, E. H., Fuligni, A. J., Lieverman, M. D. & Galván, A. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 111, 6600–6605 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Cohen, A. O. et al. Psychol. Sci. 27, 549–562 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Wheaton, A. G., Chapman, D. P. & Croft, J. B. J. Sch. Health 86, 363–381 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links