Sensation Seeking and Impulsivity As Predictors of Adolescents' Risk Taking

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meagen A. Higgins ◽  
David V. Chavez
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Wales Patterson ◽  
Lilla Pivnick ◽  
Frank D Mann ◽  
Andrew D Grotzinger ◽  
Kathryn C Monahan ◽  
...  

Adolescents are more likely to take risks. Typically, research on adolescent risk-taking has focused on its negative health and societal consequences. However, some risk-taking behaviors might be positive, defined here as behavior that does not violate the rights of others and that might advance socially-valuable goals. Empirical work on positive risk-taking has been limited by measurement challenges. In this study, we elicited adolescents’ free responses (n = 75) about a time they took a risk. Based on thematic coding, we identified positive behaviors described as risks and selected items to form a self-report scale. The resulting positive risk-taking scale was quantitatively validated in a population-based sample of adolescent twins (n = 1249). Second, we evaluated associations between positive risk-taking, negative risk-taking, and potential personality and peer correlates using a genetically informed design. Sensation seeking predicted negative and positive risk-taking equally strongly, whereas extraversion differentiated forms of risk-taking. Additive genetic influences on personality accounted for the total heritability in positive risk-taking. Indirect pathways from personality through positive and negative peer environments were identified. These results provide promising evidence that personality factors of sensation seeking and extraversion can manifest as engagement in positive risks. Increased understanding of positive manifestations of adolescent risk-taking may yield targets for positive youth development strategies to bolster youth well-being.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
João F. Guassi Moreira ◽  
Eva H. Telzer

We tested two competing predictions of whether changes in parent–child relationship quality buffer or exacerbate the association between sensation-seeking and risk-taking behaviors as individuals gain more independence during the high school–college transition. In the current longitudinal study, 287 participants completed self-report measures of sensation seeking, risk-taking, and parent–child relationship quality with their parents prior to starting college and again during their first semester. Overall, students displayed increases in risky behaviors, which were predicted by sensation seeking. Changes in relationship quality moderated the association between sensation seeking and risk-taking, such that sensation seeking predicted higher risk-taking behaviors during the first semester of college, but only for those who reported increases in relationship quality across the college transition. These results suggest that increased relationship quality may have an inadvertent spillover effect by interacting with sensation seeking to increase risky behaviors.


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (23-24) ◽  
pp. 5276-5291
Author(s):  
Alisa R. Garner ◽  
Laura C. Spiller ◽  
Patrick Williams

The purpose of this study was to examine whether a decision-making model of risk-taking behavior, specifically impulsivity, positive and negative outcome expectation, and sensation seeking, can be extended to motivation for perpetration of sexual coercion. Participants included 276 sexually active college students between the ages of 18 and 25 years old who completed a set of questionnaires: (a) Sexual Experiences Survey, (b) Sensation Seeking Scales, (c) Cognitive Appraisal of Risky Events, (d) Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, and (e) Reckless Behavior Questionnaire. Multiple regression analyses were utilized to examine the relationship between these decision-making models and sexually coercive behaviors. General risk-taking behaviors were positively correlated with acts of sexual coercion, r = .16, p < .01. The predictor variables accounted for a significant amount of the variance in sexual coercion, R2 = .11, F(4, 246) = 7.57, p < .01. Only sensation seeking contributed unique variance to our model of sexual coercion, β = .27, t = 4.06, p < .01. Interventions to reduce sexual coercion may be more successful if they target those high in risk-taking. Similarly, prevention efforts informed by research on how to engage and hold the attention of sensation seeking youth may be more successful.


Author(s):  
Woromita Fathlistya ◽  
Martina Dwi Mustika

Understanding the attitudes of individuals toward safety is important for hospital prevention programs and could reduce safety-related accidents. This study investigates the effects of perceived individual safety attitude in explaining the relationship between sensation seeking and risk-taking propensity for rewards in predicting individual performance. An on-line cross-sectional study was undertaken in which 177 nurses who completed an objective task (BART) and self-report questionnaires. Path analysis results revealed that perceived individual safety attitude influenced the relationship between both sensation seeking and risk-taking propensity in predicting individual performance. Nurses with both sensation seeking and risk-taking propensity for rewards have negative perceptions toward individual safety attitude, which resulted in poor individual work performances. It is indicated that encourage performance by rewards is not always effective.


2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 479-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Woodman ◽  
Matt Barlow ◽  
Comille Bandura ◽  
Miles Hill ◽  
Dominika Kupciw ◽  
...  

Although high-risk sport participants are typically considered a homogenous risk-taking population, attitudes to risk within the high-risk domain can vary considerably. As no validated measure allows researchers to assess risk taking within this domain, we validated the Risk Taking Inventory (RTI) for high-risk sport across four studies. The RTI comprises seven items across two factors: deliberate risk taking and precautionary behaviors. In Study 1 (n = 341), the inventory was refined and tested via a confirmatory factor analysis used in an exploratory fashion. The subsequent three studies confirmed the RTI’s good model–data fit via three further separate confirmatory factor analyses. In Study 2 (n = 518) and in Study 3 (n = 290), concurrent validity was also confirmed via associations with other related traits (sensation seeking, behavioral activation, behavioral inhibition, impulsivity, self-esteem, extraversion, and conscientiousness). In Study 4 (n = 365), predictive validity was confirmed via associations with mean accidents and mean close calls in the high-risk domain. Finally, in Study 4, the self-report version of the inventory was significantly associated with an informant version of the inventory. The measure will allow researchers and practitioners to investigate risk taking as a variable that is conceptually distinct from participation in a high-risk sport.


Author(s):  
Evan Su Wei Shang ◽  
Eugene Siu Kai Lo ◽  
Zhe Huang ◽  
Kevin Kei Ching Hung ◽  
Emily Ying Yang Chan

Although much of the health emergency and disaster risk management (Health-EDRM) literature evaluates methods to protect health assets and mitigate health risks from disasters, there is a lack of research into those who have taken high-risk behaviour during extreme events. The study’s main objective is to examine the association between engaging in high-risk behaviour and factors including sociodemographic characteristics, disaster risk perception and household preparedness during a super typhoon. A computerized randomized digit dialling cross-sectional household survey was conducted in Hong Kong, an urban metropolis, two weeks after the landing of Typhoon Mangkhut. Telephone interviews were conducted in Cantonese with adult residents. The response rate was 23.8% and the sample was representative of the Hong Kong population. Multivariable logistic regressions of 521 respondents adjusted with age and gender found education, income, risk perception and disaster preparedness were insignificantly associated with risk-taking behaviour during typhoons. This suggests that other factors may be involved in driving this behaviour, such as a general tendency to underestimate risk or sensation seeking. Further Health-EDRM research into risk-taking and sensation seeking behaviour during extreme events is needed to identify policy measures.


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