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Behavioral Sciences and the Law

Behav. Sci. Law 18: 741±760 (2000)

(Im)maturity of Judgment in Adolescence: Why Adolescents May Be Less Culpable Than Adults

Elizabeth Cauffman, Ph.D* and Laurence Steinberg, Ph.D

A crucial step in the establishment of effective policies and

regulations concerning legal decisions involving juveniles is

the development of a complete understanding of the many

factorsÐpsychosocial as well as cognitiveÐthat affect the

evolution of judgment over the course of adolescence and

into adulthood. This study examines the in¯uence of three

psychosocial factors (responsibility, perspective, and tem-

perance) on maturity of judgment in a sample of over 1,000

participants ranging in age from 12 to 48 years. Participants

completed assessments of their psychosocial maturity in the

aforementioned domains and responded to a series of hy-

pothetical decision-making dilemmas about potentially

antisocial or risky behavior. Socially responsible decision

making is signi®cantly more common among young adults

than among adolescents, but does not increase appreciably

after age 19. Individuals exhibiting higher levels of respon-

sibility, perspective, and temperance displayed more ma-

ture decision-making than those with lower scores on these

psychosocial factors, regardless of age. Adolescents, on

average, scored signi®cantly worse than adults, but indivi-

dual differences in judgment within each adolescent age

group were considerable. These ®ndings call into question

recent arguments, derived from studies of logical reasoning,

that adolescents and adults are equally competent and that

laws and social policies should treat them as such. Copyright

# 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The existence of a juvenile justice system separate from the adult criminal justice

system is predicated on two fundamental assumptions about adolescents: (1) that

*Correspondence to: Elizabeth Cauffman, Law and Psychiatry Research, WPIC, University of Pitts- burgh, 3811 O`Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. E-mail: [email protected] This paper is based on Elizabeth Cauffman's doctoral dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology at Temple University. Preparation of this manuscript was supported by the Stanford Center on Adolescence and by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice. Dr. Cauffman wishes to thank research assistants Douglas Ford, Amber May, Christopher Perri, Diana Rivers, Casey Scoggins, Mimi Weiss, and Lisa Yinger. The authors are especially grateful to Shirley Feldman for her helpful suggestions on earlier drafts of this manuscript. This paper was presented as part of a symposium at the 1997 biennial meeting of the Society of Research in Child Development.

they are less capable of mature judgment than adults and are therefore less culpable

for any offenses that they commit; and (2) that they are more amenable to treatment

than adults, and therefore are more likely to pro®t from rehabilitation (Scott &

Grisso, 1997). Over the last decade, however, policy-makers in the United States

have called for dramatic changes in law and social policy that challenge the

developmental assumptions on which the existence of the juvenile justice system

rests. Speci®cally, many policy-makers and politicians, in response to growing fears

about violent juvenile crime, have called for lowering the age at which juveniles

accused of crimes can be transferred to adult court and exposed to adult sanctions.

This ``jurisdictional boundary,'' once ®rmly ®xed at 17 or 18, has been lowered in

many states to 14 or even younger, and some states no longer have a lower age limit

for criminal prosecution at all (Grif®n, Torbet, & Szymanski, 1999). In a growing

number of localities, a 12-year-old child accused of a serious crime will be tried and

sentenced in the criminal justice system. Similar proposals to lower the age of

transfer to adult court are now beginning to surface in several European nations.

Without empirical evidence on the differential culpability and amenability of

adolescents versus adults, there is no basis for knowing where to set the jurisdictional

boundary or for evaluating whether a proposed change in boundary is sensible in

light of developmental research. Perhaps because changes in jurisdictional boundary

have been proposed only very recently, little systematic research has examined

whether adolescents are inherently less culpable or more amenable than adults.

With respect to culpability, we do not know, for example, whether juveniles are

developmentally less mature than adults in ways that impair their judgment and

make them inherently less accountable for their actions and, if so, at what age

individuals demonstrate a level of maturity that quali®es them for adult standards of

accountability. With respect to amenability, we do not know whether there are

predictable changes in malleability over the course of adolescence and, if so, whether

there is a turning point in development after which individuals become relatively

unaffected by attempts at rehabilitation.

The present study focuses on the ®rst of these issuesÐ whether there are

developmental changes during the adolescent years in psychological characteristics

relevant to determinations of culpability.1 In particular, we ask whether there are

predictable patterns of change in individuals' antisocial judgments between adoles-

cence and adulthood and, if so, whether these patterns of change are related to age-

related changes in various components of maturity. Because culpability refers to the

extent to which a person can be considered blameworthy or deserving of punish-

ment for a given behavior, the evaluation of culpability is largely a moral decision.

Nevertheless, if any such moral standard is to be applied to offenders of varying

levels of maturity, it is important that evaluations of maturity (and subsequent

determinations of culpability) be grounded in an accurate understanding of the

factors that in¯uence how adolescents make decisions.

Roughly speaking, accounts of adolescent immaturity within the literature on psy-

chological development fall into two broad categories: those that attribute youthful

immaturity to cognitive differences between adolescents and adults (i.e., de®ciencies in the way adolescents think), and those that attribute immaturity to psychosocial

1For the purposes of the present work, we use the term ``adolescence'' to refer to the range of ages most affected by the ongoing transfer debateÐfrom about age 13 to age 18.

742 E. Cauffman and L. Steinberg

differences (i.e., de®ciencies in adolescents' social and emotional capability). These

cognitive and psychosocial differences are assumed to result in differences in

``maturity of judgment,'' a term we use here to refer to the complexity and sophi-

stication of the process of individual decision-making as it is affected by a range of

cognitive, emotional, and social factors. We believe that ``judgment'' better captures

the mix of cognitive and psychosocial processes of interest than does ``decision-

making,'' a term that traditionally has had a more purely cognitive ¯avor within the

psychological literature. For the purposes of this study, therefore, we use the term

``judgment'' to refer to the cognitive and psychosocial factors that in¯uence deci-

sions, while we use the term ``decision-making'' to refer to the actual choices made.

Two points about what we mean by ``maturity of judgment'' warrant some

additional elaboration. The ®rst is that ``judgment,'' within the framework we

employ in this study, refers to the process of decision-making, and not to any particular decision outcome. Maturity of judgment, then, refers to the way that the process of decision-making changes with development. Under the law, one's

level of culpability may depend upon the degree of maturity of the process through

which a decision was made. Put another way, the question of whether a juvenile

offender ``ought to have known better'' cannot be answered by looking only at the

nature of his or her behavior. The very question relies on an assumption that there is

an underlying set of characteristics that in¯uences one's decision-making and one's

resultant behavior. This set of characteristics, which evolves from ``de®nitely could

not have known better'' to ``de®nitely should have known better'' during the course

of development, is by de®nition what we call maturity of judgment.

The second point about maturity of judgment is that within the framework we

have advanced (Cauffman & Steinberg, 1995; Steinberg & Cauffman, 1996),

judgment is neither exclusively cognitive nor exclusively psychosocial; it is the

byproduct of both sets of in¯uences. Accordingly, an individual can exhibit poor

judgment because of some sort of intellectual de®ciency, such as faulty logic or

ignorance of some crucial piece of information; because of some emotional or social

shortcoming, such as impulsivity or susceptibility to peer pressure; or both (Scott,

Reppucci, & Woolard, 1995). Thus, we would argue that a young teen who robs a

liquor store with his friends exhibits poor judgment regardless of whether he does so

because he miscalculates the likelihood of violence, or whether he does so because

he was encouraged by his friends or feared their disapproval. The question is not

whether robbing a liquor store is a bad decision. The question is whether this

decision arose from factors that put adolescents, relative to adults, at an inherent

disadvantage when faced with choices in potentially antisocial situations.

Having made this theoretical distinction between decisions and the maturity of

judgment that underlies them, we can now turn to the question of what, exactly,

those factors are that differentiate someone who ``ought to know better'' from one

who does not. To date, most research on adolescent judgment and decision-making,

and on whether adolescents' judgment is less mature than that of adults, has focused

on the cognitive processes involved and has more or less ignored emotional and

social in¯uences on decision-making. Most of these efforts to identify the underlying

cognitive factors that account for age differences in risk-taking and antisocial

decision-making have not been successful (Fischhoff, 1992; Furby & Beyth-Marom,

1992). Contrary to the stereotype of adolescents as markedly egocentric, for

example, or as doomed by de®ciencies in logical ability, studies show that adoles-

Maturity of judgment 743

cents (at least, from age 15 on) are no more likely than adults to suffer from the

``personal fable'' (the belief that one's behavior is somehow not governed by the

same rules of nature that apply to everyone else, as when a cigarette smoker believes

that he is immune to the health effects of smoking) and no less likely than adults to

employ rational algorithms in decision-making situations (Jacobs-Quadrel, Fischh-

off & Davis, 1993). In fact, there is substantial evidence that adolescents are well

aware of the risks they take (Alexander, Kim, Ensminger, Johnson, Smith, & Dolan,

1990), and that increasing adolescents' awareness of various risks has little impact

on their decision-making outside the laboratory (Of®ce of Technology Assessment,

1991a,b,c; Rotheram-Borus & Koopman, 1990). Moreover, there is little evidence

that growth in the logical abilities relevant to decision-making occurs in any

systematic way much past age 16 (Overton, 1990).

The failure of researchers to ®nd strong evidence of cognitive differences between

adolescents and adults that might account for developmental differences in deci-

sion-making has led to two very different sorts of speculation. One line of reasoning,

derived from behavioral decision theory, is that adolescents and adults employ the

same logical processes when making decisions, but differ in the sorts of information

they use and the priorities they hold (Furby & Beyth-Marom, 1992). According to

this view, for example, adolescents engage in unprotected sex more often than adults

not because adolescents suffer from a ``personal fable'' that permits them to deny

the possibility of pregnancy, or because they are misinformed about the risks of the

activity, but because, in the calculus of a 16-year-old, the potential bene®ts of

unprotected sex (spontaneity, heightened physical pleasure) simply outweigh in

value the potential costs (pregnancy, infection). Within this model, age differences

in risky decision-making stem from differences in concerns, not competencies

(Beyth-Marom, Austin, Fischhoff, Palmgren, & Jacobs-Quadrel, 1993; Furby &

Beyth-Marom, 1992; Gardner & Herman, 1990). This distinction, between con-

cerns and competencies, is directly relevant to any discussion of adolescent culp-

ability, since it is the assumption that adolescents are less competent than adults

(and not that adolescents merely have different priorities) that undergirds the very

existence of a separate juvenile justice system. Overall, there is little evidence from

studies of cognitive development to support the assertion that adolescents, once they have turned 16, should be viewed as less culpable than adults.

This is not the end of the story, however. Indeed, a different perspective on the

question of age differences in decision-making has been suggested by several writers,

including the present authors, who have argued that there may be developmental

differences between adolescents and adults in non-cognitive realms that account for age differences in behavior and that may have implications for assessments of

culpability (e.g., Cauffman & Steinberg, 1995; Scott et al., 1995; Steinberg &

Cauffman, 1996). We and others have suggested, speci®cally, that observed

differences in risky decision-making between adolescents and adults may well re¯ect

differences in capabilities, and not simply priorities, but that the particular cap-

abilities involved are not those which are assessed by measures of logical reasoning.

According to our view, there may well exist psychosocial factors that affect the

sorts of decision individuals make, that follow a developmental progression between

adolescence and adulthood, and that bear on the question of adolescent culpability.

In several publications (e.g., Cauffman & Steinberg, 1995; Steinberg & Cauffman,

1996), we have proposed a model of maturity of judgment that emphasizes three

744 E. Cauffman and L. Steinberg

broad categories of psychosocial factors that are likely to affect the ways in which

individuals make decisions, including decisions to commit antisocial or criminal

acts. These three categories of psychosocial factors include (1) responsibility, which encompasses such characteristics as self-reliance, clarity of identity, and indepen-

dence; (2) perspective, which refers to one's likelihood of considering situations from different viewpoints and placing them in broader social and temporal contexts; and

(3) temperance, which refers to tendencies to limit impulsivity and to evaluate situations before acting. These categories are not mutually exclusive, nor are they

without some cognitive elements. The ability to appreciate the long term conse-

quences of an action, for example, is an important element of perspective, but

requires the cognitive ability to weigh risks and bene®ts, and is related to the ability

to forgo immediate grati®cation, which is an element of temperance. Although

systematic data on the developmental course of each of these phenomena, their

interrelations, and their joint and cumulative impact on decision-making are

lacking, most major theories of adolescent psychosocial development suggest that

there are signi®cant developmental changes in several aspects of responsibility,

perspective, and temperance over the course of adolescence. More important, there

is reason to suspect that developments in these areas may potentially affect

individuals' decision-making and risk-taking in ways that ought to be taken into

account in making culpability determinations.

Although there has been some research to date on the development of various

aspects of responsibility, perspective, and temperance during adolescence (for a

review, see Steinberg & Cauffman, 1996), few studies have compared adolescents

and adults directly on these dimensions, and fewer still have attempted to examine the

relations between these psychosocial elements of mature judgment and decision-

making in situations relevant to legal concerns. These are the goals of the present

study. We hypothesize that elements of responsibility, perspective, and temperance

develop during the course of adolescence. Because we argue that these factors are key

elements of what we de®ne to be ``maturity of judgment,'' we further hypothesize that

those who are responsible, temperate, and circumspect will make better decisions.

(For example, they will be less likely to rob liquor stores.) We do not (nor can one) measure maturity of judgment directly. Rather, we hypothesize that maturity of

judgment depends upon certain psychosocial qualities and test this by examining

whether these qualities affect the decisions that participants make under various

circumstances, including those that involve decision-making in antisocial contexts.

The extent to which these psychosocial factors do, indeed, affect decisions provides

an indication of how accurately we have identi®ed the composite elements of maturity

of judgment. We do not assess cognitive elements of mature judgment, as these have

received considerable research attention; we focus instead on exploring the less

clearly understood role of psychosocial factors in the decision-making process.

METHOD

Sample

The data for the present analyses were obtained from self-report questionnaires

administered to eighth, tenth, and twelfth grade students as well as college students

Maturity of judgment 745

attending schools in the Philadelphia area. (See Table 1 for descriptive information

on the study sample.) The junior high and high school were both located in the same

school district and were selected to yield a diverse sample in terms of ethnicity,

socioeconomic status, and type of community (suburban and urban) that was

demographically comparable to the student body of the college from which the

adult sample was drawn. In general, the sample is evenly divided among males and

females and is quite diverse with respect to other demographic variables: notably,

approximately 40% of the respondents are from ethnic minority groups and nearly

one-third come from homes in which the parents have not attended school beyond

the 12th grade. Similar patterns in gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status were

observed within each age group (with the exception that female adults outnumbered

male adults four to one, a factor that we take into account in subsequent analyses).

Because the adult sample was drawn from a college population, it may differ from

the high-school sample not only in age but also in other dimensions that may

distinguish individuals who go on to post-secondary education from those who do

not. Accordingly, we conducted all analyses with and without eliminating high-

school participants with a grade-point average lower than a C in order to make the

high-school group comparable to the population of students admitted to the college

from which adult participants were recruited. Because the pattern of age differences

observed in the analyses using only the higher-performing high-school students was

not signi®cantly different from the pattern observed using the entire sample, we

report only the analyses conducted using the complete sample.

Table 1. Characteristics and demographics of the study sample

Total sample

(n�1,015) College sample

(n�205) 8th grade 10th grade 12th grade Under 21 21 & over

(n�417) (n�238) (n�155) (n�115) (n�90) Mean age (SD) 13.7 (.73) 15.5 (.59) 17.5 (.63) 19.4 (.62) 25 (5.5)

Sex

Male 50% 45% 43% 17% 27%

Female 50% 55% 57% 83% 73%

Parental education

Some high school 10% 5% 6% 15% 22%

High school graduate 29% 24% 25% 20% 17%

Some college 37% 47% 46% 37% 36%

College & beyond 24% 24% 23% 28% 25%

Ethnicity

African±American 24% 22% 26% 24% 23%

Asian 3% 3% 1% 25% 17%

Hispanic 3% 2% 4% 1% 5%

White 63% 67% 62% 45% 44%

Other 7% 6% 7% 5% 11%

746 E. Cauffman and L. Steinberg

Procedure

A ``passive consent'' procedure was used to obtain tacit approval from the parents of

eighth, tenth, and twelfth grade students, whereby parents were provided an

opportunity to withhold consent for their children's participation.2 All parents

with children in the participating school grades were informed, by ®rst-class mail, of

the date and nature of the study three weeks in advance of the scheduled

questionnaire administration. Parents were asked to call or write their child's school

or the investigator of the study if they did not want their child to participate in the

study. We also obtained active consent from all participating adolescents. Students

in attendance in participating schools on the days of survey administration were

informed about the purpose of the study and asked to complete the questionnaire.

All students were informed that their participation in the study was voluntary and

that they could withdraw from the study at any time. Of the potential participants,

5% were withheld from the study by their parents, approximately 5% of the students

elected not to participate, and 8% were absent from school on the day of admin-

istration. The sample of adults was recruited through announcements in under-

graduate psychology classes inviting students to participate in the study in exchange

for extra credit; informed consent from these individuals was obtained at the time of

survey administration.

Measures

Demographic Information

Participants were asked to report their age, sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status.

Socioeconomic status was based upon parents' level of education, as research has

indicated that parental education may be the most stable component of a family's

social class (Steinberg, Mounts, Lamborn, & Dornbusch, 1991). Participants were

partitioned into ®ve age groups. Adolescent participants were categorized by grade

(8th, 10th, or 12th), while adults were divided into two groups of roughly equal size:

one composed of those under 21 years of age, and one composed of those 21 and

older.

Components of Psychosocial Maturity: Responsibility,

Perspective, and Temperance

Responsibility

Responsibility was assessed using the personal responsibility scale of the Psychoso-

cial Maturity Inventory (PSMI Form D; Greenberger, Josselson, Knerr, & Knerr,

2Studies show that the use of ``active consent'' procedures (i.e., procedures requiring active parental written consent in order for their adolescents to participate in research) screen out disproportionate numbers of students who are dissatis®ed with school, whose parents have lower education levels, who have low self-esteem, and, most importantly for the present study, who exhibit higher levels of risk-taking (Dent, Galaif, Sussman, & Stacy, 1993).

Maturity of judgment 747

1974) which has excellent validity and psychometric properties (Greenberger &

Bond, 1976). Items on the personal responsibility subscale tap self-reliance (i.e., feelings of internal control and the ability to make decisions without extreme

reliance on others, e.g., ``Luck decides most things that happen to me'' [reverse

coded]); identity (i.e., self-esteem, clarity of the self, and consideration of life goals, e.g., ``I change the way I feel and act so often that I sometimes wonder who the `real'

me is.'' [reverse coded]); and work orientation (i.e., pride in the successful comple- tion of tasks, e.g., ``I hate to admit it, but I give up on my work when things go

wrong.'' [reverse coded]). The scale contains 30 items to which participants respond

on a four-point Likert scale ranging from ``strongly agree'' to ``strongly disagree,''

with higher scores indicating more responsible behavior. In the present sample, the

internal consistency of the scale was .87.

Perspective

Two distinct aspects of perspective were assessed. First, the ability to see short and

long term consequences (i.e., ``time perspective,'' also referred to as ``future

orientation'') was measured using the Consideration of Future Consequences Scale

(CFC) (Strathman, Gleicher, Boninger, & Edwards; 1994). The CFC (alpha� .76) consists of 12 items on a Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (extremely uncharacter-

istic) to 5 (extremely characteristic). For each of the statements (e.g., ``I often do

things that don't pay off right away but will help in the long run.'') participants are

asked to indicate how characteristic the statement is of them. This scale is highly

correlated with other measures of future orientation, such as the Stanford Time

Perspective Inventory (Zimbardo, 1990). Because the CFC scale was originally

designed for use with college students, we simpli®ed the wording of the items so that

participants ranging in age from early adolescence to young adulthood could

complete the scale. (For consistency, we used the simpli®ed version for all

participants, regardless of age.) Second, the Consideration of Others subscale

from the Weinberger Adjustment Inventory (WAI) (Weinberger & Schwartz,

1990) was used to assess how often participants take other people's perspectives

into account (e.g., social perspective taking). The ®ve-item scale (alpha� .73) asks participants to rate from 1 to 5 (1�almost never to 5�almost always) how often over the ``past year or more'' their behavior could be described by statements such as

``Before I do something, I think about how it will affect the people around me.''

CFC and the Consideration of Others scores (r � :37; p < :001) were converted to standardized units and averaged to produce an overall perspective score for use in

subsequent analyses. The resultant perspective measure was scaled to range from 0

(low perspective) to 5 (high perspective).

Temperance

Participants responded to items tapping aspects of temperance, including impulse

control and self-restraint from aggressive behavior, as assessed using subscales of the

Weinberger Adjustment Inventory. Participants were asked to describe themselves

on a ®ve-point Likert-type scale (1�almost never, to 5�almost always) regarding what they have usually been like or felt like over the ``past year or more.'' A 12-item

748 E. Cauffman and L. Steinberg

temperance score (alpha� .83) was calculated by aggregating subscales measuring impulse control (e.g., ``I do things without giving them enough thought'' [reverse coded]) and suppression of aggression (e.g., ``I lose my temper and `let people have it' when I'm angry'' [reverse coded]).

Psychosocial Maturity

According to the theoretical framework described earlier, psychosocial maturity is

de®ned to encompass elements of responsibility, perspective, and temperance.

Accordingly, a composite measure of ``psychosocial maturity'' was constructed by

averaging the z-scores of the responsibility, perspective, and temperance aggregates described above and renormalizing the resulting scale to range from 0 to 5.

Statistical analyses were performed using this continuous variable. In ®gures

depicting the relation between psychosocial maturity and other variables, we divide

the sample into tertiles re¯ecting different levels of psychosocial maturity.

We recognize that the operational de®nitions of psychosocial maturity and its

subcomponents, responsibility, perspective, and temperance, may not provide what

would ultimately be considered a de®nitive assessment of the hypothesized under-

pinnings of maturity of judgment as outlined in the introduction to this article.

Because the study of psychosocial maturity in relation to decision-making is in the

early stages, the emphasis of the present study is on determining whether a

representative set of psychosocial factors is meaningfully related to decision-making,

and whether these factors vary across adolescence and between adolescence and

adulthood. We anticipate that future research will address the issue of developing a

more complete picture of the myriad psychosocial factors that may eventually be

shown to in¯uence maturity of judgment.

Antisocial Decision-Making

Antisocial decision-making was assessed via the Youth Decision-Making Ques-

tionnaire (YDMQ) (Ford, Wentzel, Wood, Stevens, & Siesfeld, 1990). The YDMQ

presents participants with a set of hypothetical situations that involve choosing

between antisocial and socially accepted courses of action (e.g., shoplifting versus

not shoplifting). For each hypothetical situation, participants are asked to indicate,

on a four-point scale ranging from de®nitely choosing the responsible action to

de®nitely choosing the irresponsible action, how they would behave if they were

confronted with such a dilemma (alpha� .76). For example, ``You're out shopping with some of your close friends and they decide to take some clothing without paying

for it. You don't think it's a good idea, but they say you should take something too.''

Participants are then presented with three possible scenarios. First, ``Suppose

nothing bad would happen to you (such as getting arrested) if you took the clothing.

Would you shoplift or would you refuse to take the item?'' The next scenario asks

the participant to imagine that something bad would happen, and the third scenario suggests that the participant doesn't know what would happen. We refer to these

variations in consequences as (a) consequences, (b) no consequences, and (c)

unknown consequences. For each scenario and each consequence, participants are

Maturity of judgment 749

asked to indicate whether or not they would do the antisocial action on a four-point

scale ranging from (for the above example), ``de®nitely shoplift'' to ``de®nitely

refuse to shoplift.''

The measure employed in the present study was modi®ed somewhat from Ford

et al.'s (1990) original instrument in two ways. First, in order to satisfy time

constraints, and to provide the most clear-cut choices between antisocial and

socially accepted behavior, only ®ve of Ford's original nine scenarios (the scenarios

with the most clear-cut choices between right and wrong) were selected for inclusion

in the present study: (1) smoking marijuana; (2) shoplifting; (3) joy-riding in a

stolen car; (4) cheating on a test; and (5) deceiving one's employer. Second, the

``unknown consequences'' scenario was added, since this more accurately re¯ects

many real-life situations.

Two caveats about our measure of decision-making are in order. First, it is

important to note that, for the purposes of this study, we de®ne ``antisocial''

decision-making in terms of the extent to which individuals make socially sanctioned

choices. We recognize that, in theory, the maturity of a decision is independent of its

social acceptance. While such arguments are philosophically interesting, legal

professionals who make decisions about the adjudication and treatment of juvenile

offenders are interested in knowing whether juveniles have the competencies

necessary to abide by the law. Our decision to equate ``good'' decision-making

with socially accepted behavior is consistent with everyday practice in the courts, and

we have taken care to ensure that the ``right'' and ``wrong'' choices in the scenarios

used for this measure are not of the sort that might be subject to reasonable debate.

The second caveat concerns the use of hypothetical dilemmas to assess decision-

making, and, more speci®cally, the extent to which one can generalize responses to

such dilemmas to real-world decision-making. The use of hypothetical dilemmas to

index responsibility, decision-making, moral development, and antisocial inclina-

tions has a long history in the study of adolescent development (Berndt, 1979;

Bronfenbrenner, 1967; Devereux, 1970; Fischoff, 1992; Furby & Beyth-Marom,

1992; Kohlberg, 1969; Steinberg & Silverberg, 1986). Although individuals'

responses to hypothetical dilemmas often exhibit higher levels of moral reasoning

than are employed in real-world versions of the same situations (Arsenio & Ford,

1985), responses to hypothetical decision-making situations are often used to index

judgment and reasoning. Furthermore, previous work employing similarly struc-

tured hypothetical vignettes has supported the validity of such instruments in studies

of adolescent development and behavior (Berndt, 1979; Brown, Clasen, & Eicher,

1986; Devereux, 1970; Steinberg & Silverberg, 1986). For example, adolescents

who endorse antisocial responses to hypothetical dilemmas are in fact more likely to

commit delinquent acts, more likely to use illegal substances, and more likely to

come from family environments shown to be associated with increased risk for

problem behavior (Brown et al., 1986; Devereux, 1970; Lamborn, Mounts, Stein-

berg, & Dornbusch, 1991; Lamborn & Steinberg, 1993).

RESULTS

The present study examines the development of several psychosocial factors, as well

as their relation to antisocial decision-making. The results of the study are organized

750 E. Cauffman and L. Steinberg

as follows: First, we discuss age differences in antisocial decision-making. Second,

we discuss the development of responsibility, perspective, and temperance. Next,

the relations between these psychosocial factors and antisocial decision-making are

considered. Finally, the role of age in the decision-making process is re-examined in

the context of the observed relations between psychosocial factors and decision-

making. To ensure that age differences in decision-making and psychosocial

development were not skewed by the over-representation of females in the adult

sample, all analyses were performed separately among males and females. These

segregated analyses yielded age differences consistent with those obtained for the

entire sample, which we describe in further detail in the following sections.

Age Differences in Decision-Making

Based on signi®cant, though modest, correlations between decision-making and age

(r � :15; p < :0001) as well as between decision-making and sex (r � :20; p < :0001), we conducted a 2 � 5 multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) using gender and age as the independent variables. Data were analyzed using the

three separate components of the decision-making situation as the dependent

variables (i.e., consequential, non-consequential, and unknown consequences).

Antisocial decision-making was signi®cantly affected by both age, (multivariate

F�12; 2596�� 5:29; p < :0001), and sex (F�3; 981�� 5:71; p < :001), but not by the interaction between the two (F�12; 2596�� 1:1, ns). As shown in Figure 1 and Table 2, the univariate analyses indicate that antisocial decision-making differed by

Figure 1. Age difference in antisocial decision-making.

Maturity of judgment 751

age regardless of whether we examined decision-making with potential negative

consequences, (F�4; 983�� 13:02; p < :0001), without consequences (F�4; 983�� 4:63; p < :001) or with unknown consequences (F�4; 983�� 5:88; p < :0001). As expected, Figure 1 shows that participants are most likely to endorse antisocial

choices when it is anticipated that there are no negative consequences of their

decisions. This is true regardless of age.

Univariate analyses also revealed signi®cant sex differences in decision-making

(consequences (F�1; 983�� 16:42; p < :0001), no consequences (F�1; 983�� 7:89; p < :005), or unknown consequences (F�1; 983�� 8:43; p < :005), with fe- males less likely than males to engage in antisocial decision-making under all three

conditions (see Table 3). To simplify further analyses, decision-making scores were

averaged over the three levels of consequences; when this is done, the same age

differences, F�4; 993�� 8:27; p < :001, and sex differences F�1; 993�� 12:67; p < :0001, are observed. Based on these ®ndings, our further analyses of decision- making scores used the composite measure only.

Age Differences in Psychosocial Maturity

Three psychosocial factors (responsibility, perspective, and temperance) were

hypothesized to be key elements of mature judgment, and therefore to in¯uence

decision-making. Before investigating the relations between measures of these

psychosocial characteristics and the measure of decision-making, we examined

age differences in these traits, individually, and determined the extent to which

they are intercorrelated.

Table 2. Age different in antisocial decision-making

Singnificant Scheffe

Decision making Grade Mean SD post hoc tests (p < .05)

Consequences 8th 3.21 .64 8th vs YA, A

10th 3.16 .68 10th vs 12th, YA, A

12th 3.36 .50 12th vs 10th, YA

Young adult (YA) 3.59 .36 YA vs 8th, 10th, 12th

Adult (A) 3.57 .39 A vs 8th, 10th

No consequences 8th 2.53 .73 8th vs A

10th 2.41 .73 10th vs YA, A

12th 2.55 .60

Young adult (YA) 2.66 .65 YA vs 10th

Adult (A) 2.77 .59 A vs 8th, 10th

Unknown consequences 8th 2.83 .64 8th vs YA, A

10th 2.75 .66 10th vs YA, A

12th 2.90 .55

Young adult (YA) 3.06 .46 YA vs 8th, 10th

Adult (A) 3.07 .47 A vs 8th, 10th

Composite 8th 2.86 .61 8th vs YA, A

10th 2.77 .64 10th vs YA, A

12th 2.94 .48

Young adult (YA) 3.10 .43 YA vs 8th, 10th

Adult (A) 3.14 .43 A vs 8th, 10th

752 E. Cauffman and L. Steinberg

Responsibility, perspective, and temperance were all signi®cantly intercorrelated

(for responsibility and perspective, r� .40; for perspective and temperance, r� .36; for temperance and responsibility, r� .40; all ps < :001). A 2 (gender) � 5 (age) MANOVA was performed on these three aspects of psychosocial maturity. Analyses

revealed signi®cant differences in psychosocial maturity by both age,

(F�12; 2580�� 11:39; p < :0001) and sex, (F�3; 975�� 3:86; p < :01) but not as a function of the interaction between the two, (F�12; 2580�� :49, ns). Univariate analyses indicate an effect of age on each psychosocial variable: responsibility,

(F�4; 977�� 8:53; p < :0001), perspective, (F�4; 977�� 29:14; p < :0001), and temperance, (F�4; 977�� 7:95; p < :0001). As seen in Table 4, psychosocial ma- turity improves as a function of age, with 8th and 10th graders displaying the lowest

levels of maturity. Gender was also found to affect psychosocial development.

Univariate analyses indicate that females demonstrate more perspective

(F�1; 977�� 5:27; p < :05) and are more temperate, (F�1; 977�� 9:50; p < :005) than males (see Table 3). There were, however, no signi®cant differences between

the genders in responsibility (F�1; 977�� 2:84, ns). In order to assess the development of psychosocial maturity overall (calculated by

averaging the responsibility, perspective, and temperance scores), a 2 (gender) � 5 (age) analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed using the composite measure of

psychosocial maturity. Results indicate signi®cant differences in psychosocial

maturity as a function of both age, F�4; 992�� 20:22; p < :001, and gender, F�1; 992�� 9:75; p < :005, but not as a function of the interaction between the two. As shown in Figure 2 and Table 3, older participants exhibit higher levels of

psychosocial maturity, and females exhibit greater psychosocial maturity than males.

Age, Psychosocial Development, and Antisocial

Decision-Making

Based on the signi®cant correlations between decision-making and responsibility,

perspective, and temperance (for responsibility and decision-making, r� .31; for

Table 3. Gender differences in antisocial decision-making and psychosocial development

Mean score

Males Females F statistic

Decision-making

Consequences 3.13 3.42 16.42***

No consequences 2.42 2.63 7.89**

Unknown consequences 2.75 2.95 8.43**

Composite measure 2.77 3.00 12.67***

Psychosocial development

Responsibility 3.01 3.12 ns

Perspective 2.62 2.89 4.69*

Temperance 2.68 2.99 21.06**

Maturity 2.56 3.30 8.34**

*p<.05. **p<.005. ***p<.0001.

Maturity of judgment 753

perspective and decision-making, r� .41; for temperance and decision-making, r� .47; all ps < :001), a multiple regression analysis was performed to test the hypothesis that differences in decision-making are, in fact, attributable to differences

Figure 2. Age and gender differences in psychosocial maturity.

Table 4. Age differences in components of psychosocial maturity: responsibility, perspective, and temperance

Components of Significant scheffe

psychosocial maturity Grade Mean SD post hoc tests (p<.01)

Responsibility 8th 2.99 .43 8th vs 12th, YA, A

10th 3.03 .45 10th vs 12th, YA

12th 3.18 .39 12th vs 8th, 10th

Young adult (YA) 3.23 .39 YA vs 8th, 10th

Adult (A) 3.18 .47 A vs 8th

Perspective 8th 2.55 .66 8th vs 10th, 12th, YA, A

10th 2.76 .70 10th vs 8th YA, A

12th 2.78 .67 12th vs 8th YA, A

Young adult (YA) 3.25 .53 YA vs 8th, 10th, 12th

Adult (A) 3.28 .59 A vs 8th, 10th, 12th

Temperance 8th 2.74 .97 8th vs YA, A

10th 2.69 .95 10th vs YA, A

12th 2.87 .92 12th vs YA, A

Young adult (YA) 3.29 .70 YA vs 8th, 10th, 12th

Adult (A) 3.25 .68 A vs 8th, 10th, 12th

Psychosocial maturity 8th 2.84 .72 8th vs 12th, YA, A

10th 2.92 .78 10th vs YA, A

12th 3.11 .63 12th vs YA, A

Young adult (YA) 3.49 .52 YA vs 8th, 10th, 12th

Adult (A) 3.45 .62 A vs 8th, 10th, 12th

754 E. Cauffman and L. Steinberg

in components of psychosocial maturity. All three psychosocial variables were

entered into the regression equation simultaneously, and, as expected, this block of

psychosocial variables was a highly signi®cant predictor of decision-making

(F�3;986�� 135:0; p < :0001). Examination of beta weights indicates that less anti- social decision-making is demonstrated by individuals who are more responsible

(� �:07; p < :05), who have more perspective (� � :26; p < :0001), and who are more temperate (� � :35; p < :0001). This relation was further tested by regressing the measure of decision-making on the composite measure of psychosocial maturity.

As expected, individuals who are, overall, more psychosocially mature exhibit less

antisocial decision-making (� � :48; p < :0001). In light of this, and in light of the fact that each of the psychosocial variables is signi®cantly related to antisocial

decision-making, we used the global measure of psychosocial maturity in further

analyses.

One central hypothesis of this study is that age differences in antisocial decision-

making are attributable to differences in psychosocial maturity. This question was

addressed in two ways. First, in hierarchical regressions, we entered age at step one

and the composite measure of psychosocial maturity at step two. If the age effect is,

as we believe, a result of increases in psychosocial maturity, then any signi®cant

effect of age at step one will become nonsigni®cant when the psychosocial measure is

introduced into the equation. In other words, antisocial decision-making should be

less prevalent among participants with higher levels of psychosocial maturity,

regardless of age. This is indeed the case: Age is a signi®cant predictor of

decision-making (� � :08; p < :01). However, when psychosocial maturity is en- tered on the second step of the equation, the effect of age no longer remains

signi®cant. In fact, results indicate that psychosocial maturity, rather than age, is the

more powerful predictor of decision-making (� � :52; p < :0001). As shown in

Figure 3. Antisocial decision-making and mature psychosocial development.

Maturity of judgment 755

Figure 3, the decision-making scores of adolescents and adults with the highest

levels of psychosocial maturity are greater than those with the lowest levels,

regardless of age.

We have shown that antisocial decision-making is negatively correlated with

levels of responsibility, perspective, and temperance (and with the overall measure

of psychosocial maturity constructed using these three factors). We also have

demonstrated that, although there are signi®cant age differences in antisocial

decision-making, these differences become nonsigni®cant when the effect of psy-

chosocial maturity is taken into account. To test the prediction that, among

participants of the same age, psychosocial maturity should predict decision-making, multiple regression analyses were conducted separately within each age group.

Overall, the analyses indicate that psychosocial maturity signi®cantly predicts

decision-making within each of the ®ve age groups considered. (For 8th graders,

b � :50; p < :0001; for 10th graders, b � :60; p < :0001; for 12th graders, b � :34; p < :001; for young adults, b � :47; p < :0001; and for older adults, b � :40; p < :0005:) At all ages, individuals who are more psychosocially mature, as indexed by measures of responsibility, perspective, and temperance, are less likely

to make antisocial decisions.

DISCUSSION

The present study examined the relations among age, psychosocial maturity, and

antisocial decision-making in a sample of more than 1,000 adolescents and adults

between the ages of 12 and 48. As anticipated, individuals were found to differ

signi®cantly in their psychosocial maturity (in the domains of responsibility,

perspective, and temperance), as well as in their antisocial decision-making, as a

function of age. Moreover, antisocial decision-making was more strongly in¯uenced

by psychosocial maturity than by age. This suggests that, as hypothesized, the

measured characteristics of responsibility, perspective, and temperance are, indeed,

a part of what we think of as ``maturity of judgment.'' While there are likely to be

other factors (such as cognitive ability) that affect overall maturity of judgment, as

well, we can nevertheless conclude that it is justi®able to consider an individual's

levels of responsibility, perspective, and temperance in describing his or her

``maturity of judgment.''

Although socially responsible decision-making is more common among older

participants than among younger ones, at least in the hypothetical situations studied

here, it does not appear to increase appreciably after age 19. College students under

the age of 21 perform similarly to those over 21, suggesting that once the develop-

mental changes of adolescence are complete, maturity of judgment may stabilize.

Based on age differences in the composite index of psychosocial maturity employed

in this study, the steepest in¯ection point in the developmental curve occurs

sometime between 16 and 19 years. This appears to be especially true with respect

to the development of perspective and temperance, but less true with regard to the

development of responsibility, which appears to develop more gradually. Thus, the

period between 16 and 19 marks an important transition point in psychosocial

development that is potentially relevant to debates about the drawing of legal

boundaries between adolescence and adulthood. More ®ne-grained analyses of

756 E. Cauffman and L. Steinberg

developmental differences within this three-year period are necessary before more

speci®c conclusions can be drawn.

This is not to say that, as a class, adolescents are irresponsible, solipsistic, or

reckless in any absolute sense. It is important to remember that responsibility,

perspective, and temperance Ð the three components of maturity of judgment

studied here Ðare more predictive of antisocial decision-making than chronological

age alone. Indeed, psychosocially mature 13-year-olds demonstrate less antisocial

decision-making than psychosocially immature adults. Figure 3 demonstrates that

signi®cant numbers of adolescents exhibit below average or above average levels of

maturity of judgment, while among adults there are very few individuals in the most

immature category. The signi®cant numbers of psychosocially mature and imma- ture adolescents suggest that it is important to consider individual differences, rather

than simply age, when assessing decision-making ability or maturity of judgment

among adolescents. Nevertheless, it does appear as if the average adolescent is less

responsible, more myopic, and less temperate than the average adult. Sometimes

developmental stereotypes turn out to be true.

The results of this research, on the psychosocial contributors to decision-making, stand in contrast to those obtained from studies of the cognitive contributors to decision-making, which generally ®nd few differences between adults and middle

adolescents. Indeed, the results of this study provide a partial answer to a question

that has long perplexed psychologists interested in explaining age differences in risk-

taking: if adolescents and adults process information in similar ways, why do

adolescents take more risks? The answer, we believe, is that risk-taking is the

byproduct of an interaction between cognitive and psychosocial factors. It is

adolescents' de®ciencies in the psychosocial domain, not the cognitive domain,

that lead them to take more chances and to get into more trouble.

Before interpreting the results in further detail, we ®rst acknowledge several of the

study's limitations. The fact that our study included a signi®cant number of adult

participants over the age of 21 allowed us to obtain insight into the development of

decision-making beyond the high-school and early college years. In addition, the

sample studied was both economically and ethnically diverse, allowing the results to

be applied to populations beyond the white±middle class samples usually studied in

this sort of research. The fact that our adult sample was limited to college students

warrants caution in interpreting the ®ndings, however, since there are likely to be

signi®cant psychosocial, cognitive, and decision-making differences between adults

who enroll in college and those who do not. It is important to note, though, that the

social origins of the college students in this sample were quite similar to those of the

participating adolescents, and that the study's ®ndings were not changed by

eliminating from the sample those high-school participants with grades low enough

to make them ineligible to attend the college in question. There may, of course, still

exist differences between the college sample and the proportion of high-school

participants with ``C or better'' grades who elect not to pursue higher education.

While caution is thus warranted in interpreting comparisons between these groups,

the fact that the results were not signi®cantly affected by omitting the students with

the poorest grades suggests that the magnitude of any residual education effect is

likely to be small.

Another of the most problematic aspects of controlled decision-making studies is

that they typically rely on hypothetical dilemmas (Fischhoff, 1992). As noted in the

Maturity of judgment 757

``Measures'' section, responses to hypothetical dilemmas are often different from

responses to real-world situations. While such hypothetical dilemmas do, never-

theless, provide useful information regarding decision-making tendencies, an ob-

vious limitation of this approach in the assessment of decision-making is that such

laboratory situations minimize the potential effects of psychosocial factors on

judgment, especially in the realms of responsibility and temperance. It is thus

interesting to note that even for hypothetical dilemmas, individuals' psychosocial

maturity in¯uences their responses. Nevertheless, psychologists interested in age

differences in judgment must begin to move beyond the laboratory. Examples of the

sort of real-world research needed include work by Ambuel and Rappaport (1992),

who studied cognitive competence among teenagers who were visiting a medical

clinic for a pregnancy test; and by Lewis (1980), who examined age differences in

factors in¯uencing abortion decisions among participants awaiting the results of

pregnancy tests. Future studies should attempt to examine the ways in which

responsibility, temperance, and perspective come into play in these and other

real-world settings.

A related issue is that, as is common in the type of research described here, the

present study relies on self-reports of psychosocial characteristics and decision-

making tendencies. Despite the assurances of anonymity provided to the partici-

pants, social desirability biases are likely to skew responses toward more socially

acceptable (less antisocial) responses. Participants might therefore report less

antisocial decision-making and more psychosocial maturity than an independent

evaluation might indicate. Here again, however, this effect is more likely to minimize

the observed differences between groups than to exaggerate it.

Finally, we should note that our choices of speci®c psychosocial factors to explore

in this study were motivated by a desire to explore those areas theoretically most

likely to in¯uence decision-making. Future research will be necessary to generate a

more comprehensive understanding of the many psychosocial characteristics not

speci®cally explored here, and to determine with greater precision the relative

importance of such different characteristics in in¯uencing mature judgment. By

establishing the merit of considering psychosocial in¯uences on decision-making,

the present study lays a foundation for more detailed empirical explorations of these

relations.

How can the results of this study be used to inform the debate on juvenile

culpability and waiver? Are the observed age differences in psychosocial maturity of

judgment appreciable and consistent enough to warrant the drawing of legal

distinctions between adolescents and adults (or among adolescents of different

ages)? The present study indicates that, indeed, psychosocial characteristics con-

tinue to develop during late adolescence, and that these changes result in signi®cant

declines in antisocial decision-making. In our view, the age differences observed

here are appreciable enough to warrant drawing a legal distinction. They may not, however, be consistent enough, since signi®cant numbers of adolescents exhibit high enough levels of maturity of judgment to outperform less mature adults. Individuals

differ considerably in the timing of the development of psychosocial maturity,

making it dif®cult to de®ne a chronological boundary between immaturity and

maturity. Nevertheless, it is clear that important progress in the development of

these characteristics occurs some time during late adolescence, and that these

changes have a profound effect on the ability to make consistently mature decisions.

758 E. Cauffman and L. Steinberg

Our ®nding that adolescents are less psychosocially mature than adults in ways

that affect their decision-making in antisocial situations lends scienti®c credibility to

the argument that juvenile offenders may warrant special treatment because of

diminished responsibility. Indeed, we can even be more speci®c about the ways in which adolescents' psychosocial functioning is diminished: they score lower on

measures of self-reliance and other aspects of personal responsibility, they have

more dif®culty seeing things in long-term perspective, they are less likely to look at

things from the perspective of others, and they have more dif®culty restraining their

aggressive impulses. Our reading of relevant rulings, moreover, suggests that when

American legal opinions refer to individuals' maturity (or immaturity) of judgment,

the courts have in mind something close to the psychosocial factors we have

discussed. For example, in Kent v. United States (1966), the United States Supreme Court reviewed the District of Columbia's statutory criteria for waiver to adult

court, which included such factors as ``the sophistication and maturity of the juvenile as determined by consideration of his home, environmental situation, emotional attitude, and pattern of living'' (italics added).

Our analysis suggests that a developmental perspective can inform, but cannot

resolve, the transfer debate. Even setting aside the weighty political, practical, and

moral questions that impinge on the discussion, the developmental analysis we have

presented here does not point to any one age that politicians and practitioners

should use in formulating transfer policies or practices. Rather, the framework we

propose argues strongly against transfer policies that are solely offense-based and

argues instead for a return to offender-based policies that permit the relevant

decision-makers (e.g., judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys) to exercise

judgment about individual offenders' maturity and eligibility for transfer. This

approach would be workable both within a system that employed judicial waiver and

within one that relied on prosecutorial discretion. To the extent that transfer via

legislative exclusion is solely offense based, however, it is a bad policy from a

developmental perspective.

The irony of employing a developmental perspective in the analysis of transfer

policy is that the exercise reveals the inherent inadequacy of policies that draw

bright-line distinctions between adolescence and adulthood. Indeed, an analysis of

the developmental literature indicates that variability among adolescents of a given

chronological age is the rule, not the exception. In order to be true to what we know

about development, a fair transfer policy must be able to accommodate this

variability.

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