Sensation seeking and poor behavioral control have been implicated in the initiation and continuation of a wide range of risky behaviors in adolescents (Verdejo-Garcia et al., 2008; Zuckerman, 2006). Indeed, risk behaviors tend to cluster in adolescents such that initiation of one behavior is related to initiation of others (Biglan & Cody, 2003; McGue et al., 2006). Hence, we expected that we would observe early initiation of several behaviors that place youth at risk for adverse outcomes. In particular, we have already reported the high rate of gambling for money that we have observed in the present cohort (Hurt, Giannetta, Brodsky, Shera, & Romer, 2008). Unlike most studies of ECF and other risk factors, we examined the general tendency to engage in risk taking using a variety of risky behaviors as markers of this pattern.
