ABSTRACT

This study explored if adolescents’ style of decision-making is related to the sex composition of their friendship groups. Using data on 13,413 members of the Millennium Cohort Study at ages 11 and 14 years, we explored reciprocal associations between decision-making, measured with the Cambridge Gambling Task, and own-sex and other- or mixed-sex companionship. Cross-lagged models showed that girls whose friends at 11 were mainly girls showed better quality of decision-making, more risk adjustment, shorter deliberation time and less delay aversion at age 14, compared to girls in mixed-sex or other-sex friendship groups at 11. For boys, having predominantly male friends was associated only with more risk adjustment. Conversely, decision-making style at age 11 did little to predict keeping own-sex company at age 14. It appears that same-sex friendships may help develop better decision-making in adolescence, but only for girls.

摘要

本研究探讨了青少年的决策风格是否与其友谊群体的性别构成有关。我们使用 13,413 名年龄在 11 岁和 14 岁的千禧年队列研究成员的数据，探讨了通过剑桥赌博任务衡量的决策与同性和其他性别或混合性别的陪伴之间的相互关联。交叉滞后模型显示，与混合性别或异性友谊组中的女孩相比，11 岁时以女孩为主的女孩在 14 岁时表现出更好的决策质量、更多的风险调整、更短的审议时间和更少的延迟厌恶11岁。对于男孩来说，主要是男性朋友只与更多的风险调整有关。相反，11 岁时的决策风格几乎无法预测 14 岁时保持自己的性伴侣。