TY - JOUR
T1 - Developmental differences in reward sensitivity and sensation seeking in adolescence
T2 - Testing sex-specific associations with gonadal hormones and pubertal development
AU - Harden, K. Paige
AU - Mann, Frank D.
AU - Grotzinger, Andrew D.
AU - Patterson, Megan W.
AU - Steinberg, Laurence
AU - Tackett, Jennifer L.
AU - Tucker-Drob, Elliot M.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grants R01HD083613, R21AA023322, and R21AA020588 to K. Paige Harden and Elliot M. Tucker-Drob, with additional funding provided by the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin, which is supported by the NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Center Grant R24HD042849. K. Paige Harden is further supported by the Jacobs Foundation Research Fellowship. The content of this article is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the official views of funding agencies or its affiliates.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grants R01HD083613, R21AA023322, and R21AA020588 to K. Paige Harden and Elliot M. Tucker-Drob, with additional funding provided by the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin, which is supported by the NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Center Grant R24HD042849. K. Paige Harden is further supported by the Jacobs Foundation Research Fellowship. The content of this article is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the official views of funding agencies or its affiliates.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 American Psychological Association.
PY - 2018/7
Y1 - 2018/7
N2 - Sensation seeking has been found to increase, on average, from childhood to adolescence. Developmental scientists have hypothesized that this change could be driven by the rise of gonadal hormones at puberty, which affect reward-related processing in the brain. In a large, age-heterogeneous, population-based sample of adolescents and young adults (N = 810; ages 13-20 years), we tested for sex-specific associations between age, self-reported pubertal development, gonadal hormones (estradiol and testosterone) as measured in saliva, reward sensitivity as measured by a multivariate battery of in-laboratory tasks (including the Iowa gambling task, balloon analogue risk task, and stoplight task), and self-reported sensation seeking. Reward sensitivity was more strongly associated with sensation seeking in males than females. For both males and females, reward sensitivity was unrelated to age but was higher among those who reported more advanced pubertal development. There were significant sex differences in the effects of self-reported pubertal development on sensation seeking, with a positive association evident in males but a negative association in females. Moreover, gonadal hormones also showed diverging associations with sensation seeking-positive with testosterone but negative with estradiol. Overall, the results indicate that sensation seeking among adolescents and young adults depends on a complex constellation of developmental influences that operate via sex-specific mechanisms.
AB - Sensation seeking has been found to increase, on average, from childhood to adolescence. Developmental scientists have hypothesized that this change could be driven by the rise of gonadal hormones at puberty, which affect reward-related processing in the brain. In a large, age-heterogeneous, population-based sample of adolescents and young adults (N = 810; ages 13-20 years), we tested for sex-specific associations between age, self-reported pubertal development, gonadal hormones (estradiol and testosterone) as measured in saliva, reward sensitivity as measured by a multivariate battery of in-laboratory tasks (including the Iowa gambling task, balloon analogue risk task, and stoplight task), and self-reported sensation seeking. Reward sensitivity was more strongly associated with sensation seeking in males than females. For both males and females, reward sensitivity was unrelated to age but was higher among those who reported more advanced pubertal development. There were significant sex differences in the effects of self-reported pubertal development on sensation seeking, with a positive association evident in males but a negative association in females. Moreover, gonadal hormones also showed diverging associations with sensation seeking-positive with testosterone but negative with estradiol. Overall, the results indicate that sensation seeking among adolescents and young adults depends on a complex constellation of developmental influences that operate via sex-specific mechanisms.
KW - Adolescence
KW - Estradiol
KW - Reward
KW - Sensation seeking
KW - Testosterone
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U2 - 10.1037/pspp0000172
DO - 10.1037/pspp0000172
M3 - Article
C2 - 29094961
AN - SCOPUS:85032744356
VL - 115
SP - 161
EP - 178
JO - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
JF - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
SN - 0022-3514
IS - 1
ER -