Two experiments were conducted by using the Balloon Analog Risk Task(BART)to examine the influence of peer observing,peer distance,and number of peers on early adolescent risk-taking behavior.Experiment 1 recruited 90 junior high school students to explore the effects of peer onsite observing versus online observing on adolescent risk-taking behavior.Compared to the solitary situation,we found that peer observing increased adolescent risk-taking behavior and that adolescents'risk-taking level was higher when peer was onsite than when peer was observing online.Experiment 2 recruited 81 junior high school students to examine the effects of mode and amount of peer presence on adolescents'risk-taking behavior.The results revealed that adolescents'risk-taking level was higher when peers observed next to each other than when peers observed across from each other,which was higher than when peers were only present.Adolescents'risk-taking levels were higher when two peers were present than when one peer was present.The study demonstrates that closer peer distance and a greater number of peers increased adolescent risk-taking behaviors,which proves the applicability of dual-systems theory in explaining adolescent risk-taking behavior in peer context,and reveals the important role of peer presence on adolescent risk-taking behavior.
adolescentsrisk-taking behaviorpeer observingdual systems theory
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