Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by heightened attraction to rewards and risk-taking propensities. Dual-systems models portray the adolescent brain in terms of a maturational mismatch whereby brain systems involved in sensitivity to incentives become potentiated before impulse-control systems have matured. That perspective implies that relying on impulse inhibition to overcome temptation is likely to yield uneven success during adolescence. Using the analogy of practice driving a race car, we propose another process that leads to achieving healthy outcomes: steering aimed at limiting or preventing motivational conflict and thereby lessening reliance on impulse control (termed braking). The focal idea is that the more adolescents can avoid troublesome contexts, the less they will need to depend on their relatively weak impulse-control abilities to avert problems and danger. Recent work links dispositional differences in self-control to indicators of steering, such as situation selection, habit cultivation, and proactive responding. Steering to curb or avoid motivational conflict could be key to promoting healthy outcomes during adolescence, a developmental period characterized by vulnerability to risk, and could have lasting importance given that enduring patterns of unhealthy, dangerous, and self-defeating behaviors often start during this period.

青春期是一个发展时期，其特点是对奖励和冒险倾向的吸引力增强。双系统模型根据成熟的不匹配来描绘青少年大脑，即在冲动控制系统成熟之前，参与对激励的敏感性的大脑系统变得增强。这种观点意味着依靠冲动抑制来克服诱惑可能会在青春期产生不平衡的成功。使用练习驾驶赛车的类比，我们提出了另一个导致实现健康结果的过程：旨在限制或防止动机冲突的转向，从而减少对冲动控制（称为制动）的依赖。核心思想是越多的青少年可以避免麻烦的环境，他们越不需要依靠相对较弱的冲动控制能力来避免问题和危险。最近的工作将自我控制的性格差异与转向指标联系起来，例如情境选择、习惯培养和主动响应。控制或避免动机冲突可能是在青春期促进健康结果的关键，这是一个以易受风险为特征的发展时期，并且可能具有持久的重要性，因为不健康、危险和自毁行为的持久模式通常始于此时期.