Risk Preferences of Children and Adolescents in Relation to Gender, Cognitive Skills, Soft Skills, and Executive Functions

This study involves experiments eliciting risk preferences with over 1,400 children and adolescents aged 3-15 years old and an assessment of cognitive and executive function skills. 

The researchers find that adolescent girls display significantly greater risk aversion than adolescent boys. This pattern is not observed among young children, suggesting that the gender gap in risk preferences emerges in early adolescence.

The researchers also find that at all ages cognitive skills (specifically math ability) are positively associated with risk taking. Executive functions among children, and soft skills among adolescents, are negatively associated with risk taking. 

They find that greater risk-tolerance is associated with higher likelihood of disciplinary referrals.

.For academics, our research provides a deeper understanding of the developmental origins of risk preferenc! es and highlights the important role of cognitive and executive function skills to better understand the association between risk preferences and cognitive abilities over the studied age range.