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Lectures 1-8 Risk behavior (UU)
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RISK BEHAVIOR AND ADDICTION INADOLESCENTS
LECTURE 1 - INTRODUCTION RISK BEHAVIOR AND ADDICTION IN
ADOLESCENCE
RISK BEHAVIOR
• Risk behavior: Behaviors that pose a risk to a healthy physical, cognitive, psychosocial
development of adolescents
- Substance use (e.g., smoking/vaping, alcohol use, cannabis use, use of XTC and
other party/designer drugs)
- Other risk behaviors (e.g., (online) gambling, gaming, social media use)
• Addiction: ….
The general developmental process of addiction
Contact with a substance à Experimenting with a substance à Integrated use à Excessive
use à Addicted use
What we tend to regard as ‘risk behavior’ depends on…
• Characteristics of the particular substance or behavior
- For instance, smoking/vaping versus gaming
• Cultural and societal norms:
- Example: alcohol use in western versus Islamic cultures
• Scientific knowledge:
- Example: knowledge on the risks of alcohol use for the cognitive development of
adolescents
, Adolescence (+10 – 24 years)
• Early adolescence (aged 10 – 14): physical growth, sexual maturation, psychosocial
development, social identity formation
• Mid adolescence (aged 15 – 17): experimenting with (risk) behaviors, personal identity
formation
• Late adolescence (aged 18 – 24): practicing adult Roles
NEUROLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT DURING ADOLESCENCE
1. Strong grow in brain volume: increase in white matter (connections), but decrease in
grey matter (nerve cells)
- Loss of gray matter among girls and boys by age
- Pruning (snoeien): if you don’t use it, you lose it!
2. High plasticity and flexibility of the brain
3. Increase in white matter: communication between brain regions strongly improves
- Long term memory increases
- Capacity for abstract (critical) thinking and metacognition increases
The speed of the development of two different brain regions differs
• The affective-motivational system (emotional brain) develops fast
• The control system (rational brain) develops slowly
• See article by Gladwin et al. (2011) for more details
,Affective-motivational system (emotional brain)
• The affective-motivational system (‘reward center’) is overactive during early and
mid-adolescence
• Adolescents experience stronger positive emotions than adults when they receive or
anticipate a reward
- This process is enhanced by testosterone
Control system (rational brain)
• The rational brain develops slowly (until about 25 years)
• The rational brain plays an important role in the development of executive functions:
- Risk estimation
- Monitoring long-term goals
- Inhibit the tendency to respond to (short-term) possibilities for reward (impulse
control, behavioral inhibition, self-control)
THE MATURATIONAL IMBALANCE MODEL (CASEY ET AL., 2011)
• Increased risk-taking during adolescence is a result of an imbalance between reward
sensitivity (the affectivemotivational system) and impulse control (control system)
, HOW CAN WE DEFINE DRUGS OR PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES?
Psychoactive substances are chemical substances that cross the blood-brain barrier and
affect the function of the central nervous system thereby altering perception, mood, or
consciousness (e.g., high/ euphoria, relaxation)
Other characteristics of psychoactive substances:
• They often induce craving after (regular) use
• They often evoke loss of
control after they have
been used (regularly)
Psychoactive substances differ
in….
• Type and strength of the
psychoactive effect
• The degree to which they
elicit craving and loss of
control.
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