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A Behavioral Economic Approach to Preventing Adolescent Violence
Moore, Courtney
Moore, Courtney
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Abstract
Youth violence is a serious public health and criminal justice concern that disproportionately affects African American and Hispanic/Latinx youth. Prevention Science researchers have identified co-occurring behaviors and risk factors for adolescent violence (Hawkins et al., 1992; 2002; 2011), some of which have been explored by behavioral economic researchers. Research increasingly suggests that delay discounting may be a trans-disease process (Bickel et al., 2012). However, there is limited research examining the relationship between delay discounting (DD) or probability discounting (PD) and adolescent violence.The study was conducted in the context of a broader violence prevention study with youth in Kansas City Kansas who are at elevated risk for violence (Southeast Kansas Education Service Center, 2018). The study was largely exploratory, examining impulsivity (i.e., delay discounting) and risk taking (i.e., probability discounting, three Risk Taking Assessments [RTAs]) in relation to seven individual- and community-level risk factors for violence. Male youth demonstrated steeper DD than female youth. Self-reports of past violence (e.g., fighting, serious attack) were associated with steep DD regardless of the youth’s gender. PD was not associated with risk factors, except for an inverse association with academic performance. On the RTAs, self-reported likelihood of fighting was associated with past fighting, disciplinary referrals, and academic failure. Youth who reported higher community risk scores reported greater likelihood of fighting, marijuana use, and stealing. The present research identified new associations between risk factors and behavioral economic measures. It provided a novel, efficient measure of risk taking (RTAs) that was more sensitive than probability discounting. The study points to the need for continued research on risk factors using behavioral economic measures, toward the goal of preventing youth violence.
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Date
2021-05-31
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University of Kansas
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Keywords
Behavioral sciences, adolescent, delay discounting, probability discounting, violence, youth