Young people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder often face a reputation for being impulsive and making risky choices. Recent research shows that this tendency to take chances may have a positive side, as these teens are more likely than their peers to stand up for others and engage in socially beneficial risks. These findings show that attention disorders journal.
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder is a common developmental disorder characterized by a pattern of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsive behavior. Teens with this condition are at risk during adolescence and often have difficulty living their daily lives. Research has traditionally focused on the harmful aspects of these behaviors. These negative risks include drug use, dangerous driving, and criminal activity.
During adolescence, all teenagers tend to take more chances than adults. Developmental psychologists attribute this general tendency to an imbalance in brain maturation. The emotional and reward-seeking centers of the teenage brain develop relatively early. In contrast, brain regions responsible for cognitive control and long-term planning mature much later.
This developmental timing creates a period when teenagers are highly sensitive to rewards but lack the neurological braking system to stop impulsive behavior. In adolescents diagnosed with attention deficit, this natural imbalance is often exaggerated. This condition is associated with excessive sensitivity to reward and reduced baseline levels of cognitive control. This combination makes these teens especially prone to impulsive behavior.
Taking risks means making choices in the face of uncertain and potentially variable outcomes. Taking risks can sometimes be beneficial. Developmental psychologists classify these beneficial opportunities into two different types. Positive risks refer to actions that may benefit young people themselves, such as trying out for a school play, joining a new sports team, or asking someone out on a date.
Prosocial risk involves seizing opportunities for the benefit of others. Examples include defending a peer who is being bullied, speaking out against authority figures, and participating in controversial protests. Although developmental researchers have begun to examine these beneficial forms of risk-taking in the general population, little is known about how risk-taking is experienced by youth with attention deficits.
Barbara R. Brahms, a cognitive neuroscientist at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, led a research team investigating this question. Braams studies brain development during adolescence, with a particular focus on how teens make decisions and take risks in social situations. Her team wanted to understand whether the heightened impulsivity commonly seen in adolescents with attention deficits translates into a willingness to take positive, prosocial risks.
The research team recruited 104 adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18 for the study. The final sample included 50 teens with a formal clinical diagnosis of the disorder and 54 teens following a typical developmental trajectory. The researchers asked the youth to complete a series of digital questionnaires and behavioral tasks during sessions lasting about an hour.
To measure risk-taking propensity, adolescents evaluated various hypothetical scenarios. They rated the likelihood of participating in a particular behavior using a numerical scale from 0 to 100. The researchers measured negative risk-taking using an established questionnaire that asks about health and safety risks, such as choosing not to wear a seatbelt.
Because standardized testing of proactive and prosocial risk-taking is a relatively new concept, the researchers designed two unique questionnaires for this particular study. The Active Risk-Taking Questionnaire indicated 13 hypothetical behaviors. These include actions such as joining an unfamiliar recreational club, trying a new hobby, and starting a conversation with a stranger.
The prosocial risk-taking survey also featured 13 scenarios. Participants visualized dilemmas such as donating large sums of personal money to charity or defending a classmate who was being actively teased. Giving up money and facing bullies both involve immediate personal risk, but ultimately lead to a greater good.
The research team also wanted to understand the psychological characteristics associated with these behaviors. They assessed impulsivity using both self-report surveys and behavioral computer tasks. In the computer task, participants had the choice of receiving a small amount of real money immediately or waiting a specified period of time to receive a large amount of money.
This type of test is called delay discounting. This measures how much a person devalues a reward based on how long they have to wait for it. During the task, participants watched a digital airplane fly across the screen carrying different amounts of cents. The researchers also collected survey data on susceptibility to boredom, feelings of empathy, and general tendency to act in helpful ways.
When researchers analyzed the data, they found that teens with attention deficits reported more likely to engage in prosocial risk-taking than their neurotypical peers. These teenagers were more willing to sacrifice their social status and comfort to help others. The researchers found no group differences in active or passive risk-taking.
The lack of differences in negative risk-taking was somewhat unexpected given the past medical literature on this disorder. The authors noted that this particular study group may represent a particularly high-functioning segment of the population. Still, the findings regarding prosocial behavior provide a new perspective on adolescent impulsivity.
The researchers found that all three types of risk-taking were positively correlated across the group of teens who participated in the study. This means that young people who are willing to take negative risks are also likely to take positive, prosocial risks. The tendency to accept uncertain outcomes appears to be a general trait across multiple different situations.
The team then looked at which specific psychological characteristics predicted the propensity to take these risks. They found that impulsivity was positively related to both negative and prosocial risk taking. Acting without thinking often gets young people into trouble, but the same quick decision-making can lead them to help someone in need.
Contrary to the researchers’ initial expectations, no relationship was found between prosocial risk-taking and general empathy. When teens take chances on others, it may not necessarily be because they feel a deep emotional resonance with that person. Rather, researchers suggest that this behavior may stem from a hypersensitivity to social justice.
Previous psychological research has shown that people diagnosed with this attention deficit often have a strong motivation to follow social rules and exhibit an amplified sense of justice. When we recognize an unfair situation, we may feel the urge to correct it. This sense of right and wrong can drive them to take prosocial risks, independent of traditional empathic feelings.
All scientific research has limitations, and researchers must interpret their results carefully. One of the main limitations of this study is its reliance on self-report questionnaires and hypothetical scenarios. Teens may predict that they would act a certain way in a hypothetical situation, but their behavior in the real world may be different.
Future observational studies could help confirm these results by tracking behavior in authentic environments. The researchers suggested that future studies could assess the proportion of youth with a clinical diagnosis who participate in real-world activities. One example might be looking at participants in climate change protests to see who chose to participate.
Another limitation is that the sample size was relatively small, totaling just over 100 participants. The researchers designed two questionnaires specifically for this project, so other scientists will need to replicate their findings using large, diverse groups. Validating these new psychometric tools is an important step for the field.
These findings have practical implications for health professionals, educators, and parents. Treatment plans for teens with attention deficits typically focus on preventing harmful behaviors. This study suggests that adults may also want to help these youth find safe and productive ways to channel their impulsive energy for the benefit of others.
Adults can help teens reframe perceived weaknesses as strengths by introducing them to social opportunities.
The study, “ADHD-related risk-taking benefits: Youth with ADHD report more likely to engage in prosocial risk-taking behaviors than typically developing youth,” was authored by Barbara R. Braams, Rebecca van Rijn, Tessa Leijser, and Tycho J. Dekkers.
