Seminar: Adolescent and Adult Social Presence Effects on Adolescent Risk Taking: Implications for Parents and Teachers

Adolescent and Adult Social Presence Effects on Adolescent Risk Taking: Implications for Parents and Teachers
 

Professor Judith Semon Dubas
Emeritus Professor of Developmental Psychology
Utrecht University
 

April 10, 2024 (Wednesday)
16:00 – 17:30
Room 408-410, Meng Wah Complex, HKU
Chair: Dr Shuyang Dong

Registration:https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_regform.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=93483     

Abstract: 
Adolescence is a period characterized by an increases in health-risk behaviors and sensitivity to the social environment.  As numerous studies have shown, adolescent risk taking behavior in the real world is most likely to occur in groups. Most (but not all) laboratory studies confirm that compared to adults, adolescents are more sensitive to the presence of peers and indeed take more risks in their presence compared to when being alone. Moreover, the presence of adults has been found to lower risk taking. In this presentation I will review what is known about the presence of peers and adults in adolescent risk taking and factors that mitigate or exaggerate these effects.  I present our research on Dutch adolescents comparing the effects of school peers, siblings and parents on risk taking and close by putting these results within the larger context of how the social environment could affect adolescents propensity for taking more positive and negative risks.   

About the speaker:
Judith Semon Dubas, Ph.D. is Emeritus Professor of Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.  She served as president and secretary for the European Society on Family Relations.  Much of her research focuses on the role of reproductive transitions within the family (puberty and child birth) and how these impact and relate to family relations, and child and adolescent adjustment.  She is particularly interested in how characteristics of the person (pubertal timing, personality) interact with characteristics of the environment (family, peer, culture) in explaining individual differences in adjustment, risk taking, and prosocial behavior.  
Judith Semon Dubas has served as an expert reviewer for several National and International Funding Agencies including the Dutch Research Council in the Netherlands (NWO; Social Sciences and Humanities – Open Initiative Grants and Individual Talent Grants: Veni, Vidi, Vici), The Research Foundation Flanders in Belgium (FWO; Cross-discipline Odysseus Individual Talent program) and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT; Cross-discipline talent program).

~ All are welcome ~
For enquiries, please contact the Office of Research, Faculty of Education at hkchow@hku.hk