The Development of Impulse Control and Sensation-Seeking in Adolescence: Independent or Interdependent Processes?

This study examines whether changes in impulse control and sensation-seeking across adolescence and early adulthood reflect independent or interdependent developmental processes. Data are drawn from a national longitudinal study (N = 8,270; 49% female; 33% Black, 22% Hispanic, 45% non-Black, non-Hispanic). An autoregressive latent trajectory model is used to test whether development in one trait influences development in the other. Although levels of these traits are inversely correlated, we do not find evidence that change over time in either trait is influenced by the prior level of the other. This failure to reject the null hypothesis is consistent with the view that sensation-seeking and impulse control are the products of distinct neuropsychological systems that develop independently of one another.