Peer-Influence on Risk-Taking in Male Adolescents with Mild to Borderline Intellectual Disabilities and/or Behavior Disorders

This study aimed to disentangle the effects of Mild-to-Borderline Intellectual Disability (MBID) and Behavior Disorders (BD)on risk taking in circumstances where peer influence was absent or present. We studied 319 adolescents in four groups: MBID-only, MBID+BD, BD-only, and typically developing controls. The Balloon Analogue Risk-Task (BART), in a solo or peer condition, was used as a proxy of real-life risk-taking. Results show a significant main effect of BART condition. Post-hoc tests indicated higher risk-taking in the peer compared to the solo condition in all groups except BD-only. Moreover, risk taking was increased in adolescents with MBID compared to adolescents without MBID, but only under peer-influence. No main or interaction effects with BD were observed. Model based decomposition of BART performance in underlying processes showed that the MBID related increase in risk-taking under peer-influence was mainly related to increased risk-taking propensity, and in the MBID-only group also to increased safety estimates and increased confidence in these safety estimates. The present study shows that risk-taking in MBID may be better explained by low intellectual functioning than by comorbid BD, and may not originate in increased risk taking per se, but may rather be related to risk-taking under peer-influence, which is a complex, multifaceted risk-taking context. Therefore, interventions to decrease risk-taking by adolescents with MBID that specifically target peer-influence may be successful.