Social influence is an important determinant of adolescent risk-taking, but little is known about how social norms contribute to adolescents’ tendency to recommend and engage in risky behaviours. Using the Adolescent Risk-taking Questionnaire, we assessed subjects’ (n = 198, age = 10–26) propensity to engage in and recommend risk-taking as well as their perception of risk norms. Adolescents recommended risk-taking more often compared to children and young adults. Perceived social norms were the most important factor predicting engagement in risky behaviours, and adolescents perceived risk-taking to be more normative than children or adults. Our findings highlight two mechanisms that contribute to adolescent risk-taking, active recommendation and perceived social norms. On this basis, we discuss potential means to attenuate excessive adolescent risk-taking.

中文翻译：

---

青少年风险参与和推荐中的社会规范

社会影响是青少年冒险的一个重要决定因素，但对于社会规范如何促成青少年推荐和参与风险行为的倾向知之甚少。使用青少年冒险问卷，我们评估了受试者的（n = 198，年龄 = 10-26）参与和推荐冒险的倾向以及他们对风险规范的看法。与儿童和年轻人相比，青少年更经常建议冒险。感知的社会规范是预测参与危险行为的最重要因素，青少年认为冒险比儿童或成人更规范。我们的研究结果强调了有助于青少年冒险、积极推荐和感知社会规范的两种机制。在此基础上，我们讨论了减少青少年过度冒险的潜在方法。