Research Goals and Interests:
Natasha studies adolescent decision-making and risk taking. Her research is driven by the general question: How can researchers and communities help adolescents take advantage of the characteristics inherent to their development and direct them towards behaviors and opportunities that facilitate their well-being?
Natasha’s previous work has examined age differences in risk taking as a function of individuals’ self-regulatory capacities and sensitivity to reward. She has also had the opportunity to place her research in the context of culture, examining risk behavior and its psychological correlates in cross-national samples. More recently, Natasha has explored the construct of positive risk taking in adolescence: what it is, how to measure it, and to what extent it benefits adolescents’ well-being. Her work in this domain has also examined the shared and unique psychological correlates of positive and negative forms of risk taking. Most of Natasha’s research has been conducted using self-report and behavioral indices of psychological functioning and behavior. Part of her training as a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Developmental Science will involve broadening her methodological approach to include sociometric and biological (i.e., hormonal and fMRI) methodologies. In the coming years, Natasha plans to examine the neural correlates and social moderators of positive risk taking and prosocial decision-making among adolescents.
For more information about Natasha’s research and projects, please visit Natasha’s website.
Publications:
Duell, N., & Steinberg, L. In Press. Positive risk taking in adolescence. Child Development Perspectives.
Icenogle, G., Steinberg, L., Duell, N., Chein, J., Chang, L., Chaudhary, N., Di Giunta, L., Dodge, K. A., Fanti, K. A., Lansford, J. E., Oburu, P., Pastorelli, C., Skinner, A. T., Sorbring, E., Tapanya, S., Uribe Tirado, L. M., Alampay, L. P., Al-Hassan, S. M., Takash, H. M. S., & Bacchini, D. In press. Adolescents’ cognitive capacity reaches adult levels prior to their psychosocial maturity: Evidence for a “maturity gap” in a multinational sample. Law and Human Behavior.
Scott, E. S., Duell, N., & Steinberg, L. (2018). Brain development, social context and justice policy. Washington University Journal of Law and Policy, 57, 13-74.
Duell, N., Icenogle, G., Silva, K., Steinberg, L., Chein, J., Banich, M. T., Lei, C., Chaudhary, N., Di Giunta, L., Dodge, K. A., Fanti, K. A., Lansford, J. E., Oburu, P., Pastorelli, C.,
Skinner, A. T., Sorbring, E., Tapanya, S., Uribe Tirado, L. M., Alampay, L. P., Al-Hassan, S. M., Takash, H. M. S., & Bacchini, D. (2018). A cross-sectional examination of response inhibition and working memory on the Stroop task. Cognitive Development, 47, 19-31. doi: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2018.02.003
Duell, N., Steinberg, L., Icenogle, G., Chein, J., Chaudhary, N., Di Giunta, L., Dodge, K. A., Fanti, K. A., Lansford, J. E., Oburu, P., Pastorelli, C., Skinner, A. T., Sorbring, E., Tapanya, S., Uribe Tirado, L. M., Alampay, L. P., Al-Hassan, S. M., Takash, H. M. S., Bacchini, D., & Chang, L. (2018). Age patterns in risk taking across the world. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47, 1052-1072 doi: 10.1007/s10964-017-0752-y
Duell, N., Steinberg, L., Chein, J., Al-Hassan, S. M., Bacchini, D., Chang, L., Chaudhary, N., Di Giunta, L., Dodge, K. A., Fanti, K. A., Lansford, J. E., Malone, P. S., Oburu, P., Pastorelli, C., Skinner, A. T., Sorbring, E., Tapanya, S., Uribe Tirado, L. M., & Alampay, L. P. (2016). Interaction of reward seeking and self-regulation in the prediction of risk taking: A cross-national test of the dual systems model. Developmental Psychology, 52, 1593-1605. doi: 10.1037/dev0000152
Shulman, E. P., Smith, A. R., Silva, K., Icenogle, G., Duell, N., Chein, J., & Steinberg, L. (2016). The dual systems model: Review, reappraisal, and reaffirmation. Developmental
Cognitive Neuroscience, 17, 103-117. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2015.12.010
Duell, N., Icenogle, G., & Steinberg, L. (2016). Adolescent decision making and risk taking. In L. Balter & C. S. Tamis-LeMonda (Eds.), Child psychology: A handbook of contemporary issues (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Psychology Press/Taylor & Francis.