Risk-Taking and Delinquent Behaviors among Youth with and without Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Youth with intellectual disabilities (ID) demonstrate higher rates of disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs) than youth with typical development (TD). DBDs such as oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) predict higher rates of delinquency during adolescence. Yet, few studies have examined risk-taking and delinquency among youth with ID.Methods: We used a self-report measure to determine whether 13-year-old youth with ID (n = 23) reported higher rates of risk-taking and delinquent behavior than their TD peers (n = 77). We also examined whether or not youth had a previous diagnosis of ODD.Results: Our results suggest that youth with ID reported fewer rule-breaking and risk-taking behaviors than their TD peers. In contrast, youth with a previous diagnosis of ODD reported more of these behaviors.Conclusion: Our results appear discrepant from previous studies, which find higher rates of risk-taking and delinquency among youth with ID. As such, we discuss the factors that may explain our discrepant results, including our definition and assessment of ID, and the age of our participants.