A research agenda for adolescent risk-taking: where do we go from here?

This special issue of the Journal of Adolescence emphasized a broader conceptualization of adolescent risk-taking rather than a cataloguing of risk behaviors or epidemiological-type studies of risk activity. It was published soon after the publication of a book entitled “New Perspectives on Adolescent Risk Behavior” which sets a research agenda for the study of adolescent risk- taking. Studies that employed innovative methodologies such as qualitative studies were invited to contribute to this issue. This call for papers echoed Silbereisens call to study adolescents as whole persons emphasizing complexes of risk-related behaviors rather than concentrating on single risks. In fact most papers in the special issue investigated risk-taking across several or many risks while an exception found similar decision-making mechanisms underlying sexual risk-taking as had been shown in previous research to relate to a range of other risk behaviors. A major contribution of this special issue has been studies that take a decision-making or partial decision-making approach to risk- taking.