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Abstract
Adolescent risk-taking behaviors, including substance use and risky sexual behaviors, contribute to the leading causes of death and disability among youth and adults (CDC, 2020). It is important to understand developmental and contextual variables that predict risk-taking behaviors to mitigate harmful outcomes and inform prevention efforts. Developmental literature has considered childhood temperament as it relates to risk-taking behavior in adolescence. Specifically, temperamental surgency has been linked to risk-taking outcomes (e.g. Youssef et al., 2016; Cooper et al., 2001; Honomichl and Donnellan, 2012). Peer popularity has also been positively associated with risk-taking outcomes in adolescence due, in part, to increasing salience in social rewards and motivations for high peer status (Brechwald and Prinstein, 2011). While sex differences in the association between popularity and risk-taking have been noted in the literature (e.g. Prinstein et al., 2011), little is known about sex differences in childhood surgency and how potential differences may be related to risk-taking behaviors. Therefore, this study examined sex differences in the association between surgency, self-perceived popularity, and risk-taking. Using a sample of 271 children (125 males, 146 females) at 4 and 15-year assessments, we examined whether the association between early temperamental surgency (age 4) and its relation to risk-taking (age 15), is moderated by self-perceived popularity (age 15) and sex. Results of the three-way interaction indicated a significant association between surgency, self-perceived popularity, and sex predicting risk-taking in adolescence; the association between surgency and risk-taking was exacerbated at high levels of self-perceived popularity for females only. Implications for prevention and intervention efforts in the context of peer relationships are discussed.