Delay-discounting refers to such a phenomenon that future consequences or outcomes decrease in value or their effectiveness to control current behaviors, because they are delayed. For a delayed reward, the longer time it is delayed, the less its current subjective value will be compared to its actual value. Delay-discounting rate is used as a mathematical index to describe the extent to which a person discounts the value of future consequences or outcomes. Individuals with high delay-discounting rate tend to choose a smaller but immediate reward, rather than a larger but delayed one. In the current paper, we first introduced the definition, measuring methods and measure indices of delay-discounting. Then we reviewed studies on the relationship of delay-discounting and adolescent problem behaviors (including substance abuse and addiction and externalizing behaviors). The delay-discounting rate was significantly higher among addicted adolescents (i.e., teenager alcoholics, smokers, and Internet addicts) than the non-addicts, and delay-discounting could reliably predict of adolescents’ substance abuse and internet addiction. Although a significant association between delay-discounting and adolescents’ externalizing behaviors was expected theoretically, the empirical studies failed to find a consistent relationship between delay-discounting and adolescent externalizing problem behaviors. At the end of the paper, we gave several suggestions regarding to the directions for future research. First, the nature of delay-discounting should be extensively explored. Whether it is a personality trait or a phenomenon of cognitive and decision-making? Second, researchers need to conduct longitudinal study to explore the development trajectory of delay-discounting, and to reveal the associations between individual’s delay-discounting and the relevant personality and cognitive variables. Third, in order to reveal the impact of delay-discounting on adolescents’ psychological and social adaptation, more complex research design should be employed and other variables regarding to adolescents’ personality, cognition and developmental contexts such as parenting etc should be considered and included in the research. Last but not the least, the study of delay-discounting has a broad prospect, especially from a developmental perspective. Whether does delay-discounting related with positive youth development or not? Previous studies mostly focus on the individuals who have a high delay-discounting rate, and little study discuss about the low delay-discounting rate group. Does this low delay-discounting rate group have some advantages in daily work and life? These problems are worth studying and discussing .