Social risk in adolescence

Adolescence, defined as 10-24 years, is a time of heightened sensitivity to the negative effects of social rejection. Avoiding social risks - decisions or actions that could lead to social rejection - may therefore be important for adolescents, for whom social status and acceptance predicts future mental and physical health. In this thesis, I describe a series of studies that investigated the relationship between social risk and adolescence. In my first study, I developed a novel self-report measure of concern for health and social risk behaviours. I assessed age-related differences in concern for health and social risk between adolescence and adulthood, and whether these were related to rejection sensitivity and depressive symptomatology. In my second study, I explored the degree to which adolescents' engagement in health risks and illegal behaviours was related to whether or not they perceived these behaviours to increase their likability. I also investigated how this relationship is impacted by adolescents' experience of victimisation. In my third study, I used network analysis to explore the link between sexual minority status, depression, interpersonal relationships and health risk behaviours in a large cohort study of adolescents. In my fourth study, I designed an experiment to measure the extent to which adolescents versus adults show a preference for social versus non-social stimuli within an academic diligence task. I discuss how my findings suggest adolescence to be a period of heightened sensitivity to social risk, and how this impacts decisions to engage in risk taking behaviour. I consider how my findings relate to legal and policy issues around the minimum age of criminal responsibility, joint enterprise convictions and the use of peer-led approaches for behaviour change.