Can Adolescents Learn Self-control? Delay of Gratification
in the Development of Control over Risk Taking
Daniel Romer
&
Angela L. Duckworth
&
Sharon Sznitman
&
Sunhee Park
Published online: 21 March 2010
#
Society for Prevention Research 2010
Abstract Recent findings from developmental neuroscience
suggest that the adolescent brain is too immature to exert
control over impulsive drives, such as sensation seeking, that
increase during adolescence. Using a discounting of delayed
reward paradigm, this research examines the ability to delay
gratification as a potential source of control over risk-taking
tendencies that increase during adolescence. In addition, it
explores the role of experience resulting from risk taking as
well as future time perspective as contributors to the
development of this ability. In a nationally representative
sample (n=900) of young people aged 14–22, a structural
equation analysis shows that risk taking as assessed by use of
three popular drugs (tobacco, marijuana, and alcohol) is
inversely related to the ability to delay gratification. The
relation is robust across gender, age, and different levels of
sensation seeking. In addition, high sensation seekers exhibit
dramatic age-related increase in delay of gratification,
lending support to the hypothesis that engaging in risky
behavior provides experience that leads to greater patience
for long-term rewards. The findings support the conclusion
that a complete understanding of the development of self-
control must consider individual differences not easily
explained by universal trends in brain maturation.
Keywords Adolescence
.
Sensation seeking
.
Delay of gratification
.
Delay discounting
.
Future time perspective
.
Risk taking
.
Substance use
Adolescence is a period characterized by experimentation
with novel but risky behaviors such as use of alcohol,
tobacco and other drugs. Recent findings from develop-
mental neuroscience shed light on why such risky behav-
iors increase during adolescence rather than during child or
adulthood. In particular, increased dopamine release to
subcortical reward centers during adolescence encourages
attraction to novel and immediately exciting experiences
(Chambers et al. 2003; Spear 2000). Indeed, the dopamine
system, which is eminently sensitive to detecting novel
rewards (Schultz 2002; Spanagel and Weiss 1999), moti-
vates search for such experience (Panksepp 1998). In
humans, variation in dopamine activity has been linked to
a personality trait known as sensation or novelty seeking
(Zald et al. 2008; Zuckerman 1994). Sensation seeking rises
during adolescence before declining again in early adult-
hood (Romer and Hennessy 2007; Steinberg et al. 2009;
Zuckerman 1994). Furthermore, sensation seeking is
strongly associated with the initiation of a wide range of
adolescent risk behaviors, such as use of drugs (Roberti
2004; Zuckerman 1994).
An important question regarding adolescent risk taking
is whether adolescents have the capability to control such
drives. One hypothesis based on developmental neurosci-
ence is that brain maturation of the frontal cortex is not
complete until the third decade of life (Casey et al. 2008;
Steinberg 2008). As a result, adolescents do not have
sufficient frontal control to inhibit impulsive drives such as
sensation seeking. This hypothesis has the strong implica-
tion that for youth with high levels of impulsivity, such as
D. Romer (*)
:
S. Sznitman
Annenberg Public Policy Center,
University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, PA, USA
e-mail: dromer@asc.upenn.edu
A. L. Duckworth
Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, PA, USA
S. Park
College of Nursing Science, Kyunghee University,
Seoul, Korea
Prev Sci (2010) 11:319–330
DOI 10.1007/s11121-010-0171-8
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