Adolescence and emerging adulthood are developmental periods associated with increased risk taking, including alcohol and substance use and antisocial behaviors. Typical psychological growth from adolescence into early adulthood reflects increases in traits related to psychological regulation (e.g., greater emotional stability and less impulsivity), which are typically considered protective factors against risk behaviors. However, individuals may vary greatly in their development of these characteristics. This study examines the degree to which heterogeneity in developmental trajectories of psychological regulation are associated with later performance on decision-making skills battery. In this study, psychological regulation was assessed at age 10–12, with follow-up assessments at 14, 16, and 19 years. At age 19, we administered the Youth Decision-Making Competence (DMC; Parker & Fischhoff, 2005) measure. Correlational analyses revealed that lower psychological regulation, as early as age 10, was associated with lower DMC scores. A latent class growth mixture model yielded three distinct developmental trajectory classes of psychological dysregulation: (a) a Moderate-Stable group, a modal class that demonstrated stable and average regulative tendencies throughout adolescence, (b) a Low-Decreasing group, which demonstrated greater self-regulation throughout childhood, and a (c) High-Increasing group, which demonstrated low self-regulative tendencies (higher dysregulation) at age 10 that became increasingly dysregulated throughout adolescence. Individuals in the High-Increasing group demonstrated lower DMC performance than those in the Moderate-Stable and Low-Decreasing groups. Our findings also reinforce past work that indicates considerable individual differences in intra-individual change across adolescence, and that early patterns of psychological dysregulation development can impact later decision-making tendencies.

青春期和成年期是与冒险行为相关的发育期，其中包括饮酒和滥用毒品以及反社会行为。从青春期到成年早期的典型心理成长反映出与心理调节有关的特征增加（例如，更高的情绪稳定性和更少的冲动），这些特征通常被认为是防范危险行为的保护因素。但是，个体在发展这些特征方面可能会大相径庭。这项研究探讨了心理调节的发展轨迹的异质性与以后的决策技能表现相关的程度。在这项研究中，在10至12岁时评估了心理调节，在14岁，16岁和19岁时进行了随访评估。19岁那年，我们执行了“青年决策能力”（DMC； Parker＆Fischhoff，2005）措施。相关分析表明，早在10岁时较低的心理调节能力与较低的DMC分数相关。潜在类别的成长混合模型产生了心理失调的三个不同的发展轨迹类别：（a）中度稳定的群体，在整个青春期表现出稳定和平均调节趋势的模态类别，（b）低度下降的群体，表现出更大的波动趋势整个儿童时期的自我调节能力，以及（c）高增长组，他们在10岁时表现出较低的自我调节倾向（较高的失调），并在整个青春期变得越来越失调。高增长组中的个人表现出比中稳定和低下降组中更低的DMC性能。我们的发现还加强了以往的工作，这些工作表明青春期个体内变化的个体差异很大，并且心理失调发展的早期模式会影响后期的决策倾向。