title: Adolescent risk-taking as a function of prenatal cocaine exposure and biological sex.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure and biological sex on adolescent risk-taking while controlling for early environmental risk.
  
  
  METHODS
  Adolescents (n=114, mean age=16) were grouped according to high and low risk-taking propensity as measured by the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). Prenatal cocaine exposure was assessed at birth, while environmental risk was assessed at three points during early childhood.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A binary regression analysis indicated that males were 3.5 times more likely than females to be high risk-takers. Biological sex and prenatal cocaine exposure interacted such that exposed males were most likely to be high risk-takers while exposed females were the least likely to be high risk-takers. This pattern held after controlling for prenatal alcohol exposure and early environmental risk. Early environmental risk did not predict adolescent risk-taking.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings complement and extend earlier research demonstrating that prenatal cocaine exposure interacts with biological sex in domains related to inhibitory control, emotion regulation, antisocial behavior, and health risk behaviors during preadolescence.
authors: Department of Psychology, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey. Electronic address: jedediahwpallen@gmail.com.
authors: Jedediah W P
authors: JW
authors: Allen
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors: David S
authors: DS
authors: Bennett
authors: Rutgers University School of Nursing, Newark, NJ, USA.
authors: Dennis P
authors: DP
authors: Carmody
authors: Institute for the Study of Child Development, Department of Pediatrics, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.
authors: Yiping
authors: Y
authors: Wang
authors: Institute for the Study of Child Development, Department of Pediatrics, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, USA. Electronic address: lewis@rwjms.rutgers.edu.
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Lewis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003042:Cocaine / Q000009:adverse effects*; D018765:Dopamine Uptake Inhibitors / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D013223:Statistics as Topic
chemical_list: D018765:Dopamine Uptake Inhibitors; D003042:Cocaine
keywords: Adolescence; Biological sex; Prenatal cocaine exposure; Risk-taking