Research
My research centers around adolescent risk taking. I approach this topic from a broad perspective (what types of risks do adolescents take?), focusing on individual differences (why do some adolescents take more risks than others?) and contextual differences (under which circumstances do adolescents take risks?). In doing so, I apply a breadth of methods: experimental tasks, self-report measures, biological measures (autonomic nervous system measures, hormones, fMRI,), and longitudinal data analyses. I also study typical and clinical populations. Below you can read more about my completed and ongoing research projects.
Risk taking from a neuroeconomic perspective
In my Phd I studied risk-taking across adolescence as a function of behavioral preferences towards risk (choices with an unknown outcome but a known probability), and ambiguity (choices with an unknown outcome and an unknown probability). I designed a wheel-of-fortune choice task and used subjective utility modelling to estimate individuals' risk and ambiguity preferences. I studied the development of these preferences, and linked them to neural correlates of risky decision-making using fMRI. I also tested associations with daily-life risk taking.
My work shows that early adolescents may be particular ambiguity tolerant compared to older individuals. Furthermore, ambiguity tolerance - but not risk tolerance - related to greater daily-life risk taking, and risk and ambiguity processing were driven by distinct underlying neural mechanisms.
Click here for a short video clip of my Phd research.
Interested in using the wheel-of-fortune task? Please reach out or see: https://osf.io/9sx42/ where the task and all stimuli can be downloaded.
Antisocial risk taking
After my PhD I became fascinated by negative manifestations of risk taking. In my post-doc at the NeurolabNL consortium we studied antisocial risk-taking behavior, such as aggression and delinquency, from a bio-psycho-social approach. To this end I harmonized and analyzed multiple datasets of adolescents varying in severity of antisocial behavior (total N = 1489), examined unique dimensions of antisocial behavior, and related these to heart rate, skin conductance and hormonal measures at rest. I also conducted a systematic review on neurobiological stress correlates of aggression and examined the impact of psychosocial covariates.
Currently we are applying a latent class regression approach to predict non-violent and violent delinquency from biologically-informed psychological classes of youth, moderated by the social environment.
Click here for the NeurolabNL information booklet (in Dutch)
Context-specificity of adolescent risk taking
Risk taking may differ depending on the context, e.g. an adolescent may take recreational risks, but be less inclined to take financial risks. Together with an (inter)national team I study the development of risk taking across five domains (health-safety, recreational, ethical, social, financial risks) using the Domain Specific Risk Taking Scale (DOSPERT). I also examine adolescents' perceptions on the risks and benefits associated with these behaviors, and study how these perceptions relate to risk-taking likelihood. I test these questions in two longitudinal samples: a community sample and a sample of adolescents with ADHD and controls.
Currently I am collecting data on my novel research project on adolescent online risk taking (such as sexting, online gambling, and sharing personal information), a new and urgent domain. Here I combine insights from my prior and ongoing projects.
Positive and negative
risk taking
risk taking
Although risk-taking behavior increases across adolescence, so do social competences. In my Phd I became intrigued by this paradox, and studied the association between rebellious risk taking and prosocial behavior, and their longitudinal predictors. We found that these seemingly paradoxical behaviors were positively correlated and co-developed. Interestingly, although empathy and perspective taking uniquely predicted prosocial behavior, both rebellious risk taking and prosocial behavior were driven by the same underlying factor: fun seeking/sensation seeking). This may indicate that fun seeking is a differential susceptibility marker for diverse outcomes.
We also examined the longitudinal development of structural brain regions supporting the development of these diverse behaviors, and found that faster maturity of the medial PFC predicted lower levels of rebellious risk taking.