# Beyond risk reduction: Exploring the relation of cognitive control with adolescent positive and negative risk‐taking

## TL;DR

This study explores how cognitive control influences both harmful and beneficial risk-taking in adolescents, revealing age-related changes and the role of learning.

## Contribution

The study identifies divergent effects of cognitive control components on positive and negative risk-taking in adolescents.

## Key findings

- Working memory and proactive control reduce negative risk-taking but not positive risk-taking.
- Effortful control is linked to reduced harmful risk-taking and increased willingness for beneficial risk-taking.
- Learning in low-risk conditions correlates with reduced real-world harmful risk-taking.

## Abstract

Taking risks is a crucial part of adolescent development, encompassing both positive (socially valued) and negative (potentially life‐threatening) behaviors. While cognitive control is known to reduce harmful risk behaviors, its relationship with beneficial risk‐taking remains unclear. This study investigated how multiple components of cognitive control relate to both types of risk‐taking and explored learning as a potential pathway to adaptive risk‐taking. We assessed 127 adolescents (ages 12–18, 65% female, 60% White) using experimental cognitive tasks, self‐report measures, and an adapted balloon analog risk task. Working memory and proactive control were associated with reduced negative risk‐taking (NRT) but not positive risk‐taking (PRT). Effortful control showed a unique divergent pattern, being associated with both reduced NRT and increased willingness for PRT. These associations diminished with age, perhaps due to the increasing influence of external factors like opportunity and social context. Better learning in low‐risk experimental conditions related to reduced real‐world NRT, though this learning ability was not associated with cognitive control measures. These findings contribute to expanding our understanding of how cognitive control relates to adolescent adaptive risk‐taking and open up perspectives for effective interventions.