scholarly journals The assessment of physical risk taking: Preliminary construct validation of a new behavioral measure

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. e0258826
Author(s):  
Edward A. Smith ◽  
Stephen D. Benning

Risk taking is a complex heterogeneous construct that has proven difficult to assess, especially when using behavioral tasks. We present an exploratory investigation of new measure–the Assessment of Physical Risk Taking (APRT). APRT produces a variety of different outcome scores and is designed as a comprehensive assessment of the probability of success and failure, and magnitude of reward and punishment of different types of simulated physically risky behaviors. Effects observed on the simulated behaviors are hypothesized to reflect similar effects on real world physical risks. Participants (N = 224) completed APRT in a laboratory setting, half of whom had a 1.5 s delay interposed between button presses. Exploratory analyses utilizing generalized estimating equations examined the main effects and two-way interactions among five within-subject factors, as well as two-way interactions between the within-subject factors and Delay across four APRT outcome scores. Results indicated that Injury Magnitude and Injury Probability exerted stronger effects than any of the other independent variables. Participants also completed several self-report measures of risk taking and associated constructs (e.g., sensation seeking), which were correlated with APRT scores to assess the preliminary convergent and divergent validity of the new measure. After correcting for multiple comparisons, APRT scores correlated with self-reported risk taking in thrilling, physically dangerous activities specifically, but only for those who did not have a delay between APRT responses. This promising exploratory investigation highlights the need for future studies comparing APRT to other behavioral risk taking tasks, examining the robustness of the observed APRT effects, and investigating how APRT may predict real-world physical risk taking.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Smith ◽  
Stephen D Benning

Risk taking is a complex heterogeneous construct that has proven difficult to assess, especially when using behavioral tasks. We present a new measure – the Assessment of Physical Risk Taking (APRT) – as a comprehensive assessment of the probability of success and failure, and magnitude of reward and punishment of different types of physically risky behaviors with a variety of outcome scores. Participants (N = 224) completed APRT in a laboratory setting, half of whom had a 1.5 s delay interposed between button presses. Main effects, two-way interactions among five within-subject factors, and interactions between the within-subject factors and Delay were estimated for four APRT outcome scores using Generalized Estimating Equations. Results indicated that Injury Magnitude and Injury Probability exerted much stronger effects than the other factors. APRT scores correlated with self-reported risk taking in thrilling activities specifically, but only for those who did not have a delay between APRT responses.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen D Benning

Psychopathy is a distinctive personality style that is associated with a tendency to act recklessly, impulsively, and engage in sensation seeking behaviors. These associations suggest that psychopathy may be related to risk taking; however, the relationship between these variables has yet to be fully explored. To investigate this relationship, we utilized the dual-process model of psychopathy’s fearless dominance (FD) and impulsive antisociality (IA) factors and the Triarchic model’s boldness, meanness, and disinhibition domains. A sample of 508 undergraduate students completed a series of self-report questionnaires and underwent the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). Analyses revealed that individuals high on all psychopathy factors displayed a tendency to view risky situations as less risky and self-reported engaging in a number of risky behaviors. The tendency of individuals high in psychopathic traits to view situations as less risky indirectly affected their likelihood to self-report engaging in risky behaviors. Notably, only FD was significantly associated with behavioral risk taking on the BART. Further correlational analyses revealed that IA, meanness, and disinhibition were all associated with greater self-reported externalizing behaviors, sensation seeking, and impulsivity. On the other hand, FD and boldness were only associated with self-reported adult antisocial behavior, alcohol use, sensation seeking, and low levels of impulsivity. Our pattern of results showed nearly identical relationships for FD and boldness, suggesting that these two factors may be capturing the same aspects of psychopathy.


Author(s):  
Shambhavi Tiwari ◽  
Morten Moshagen ◽  
Benjamin E. Hilbig ◽  
Ingo Zettler

Aversive personality traits have been linked to risk-taking across various domains. Herein, we investigated whether the common core of aversive traits, the Dark Factor of Personality (D), is related to risk-taking. Whereas the conceptualizations of D (common core of aversive traits) and risk-taking (not inherently socially and/or ethically aversive) do not necessarily imply an association, several theoretical considerations do suggest a positive relation between the constructs. In three studies (overall n = 689), we linked D to various self-report measures of risk-taking (Studies 1 and 2), as well as to a behavioral risk-taking task (Study 3). Overall, D was positively (although not always statistically significantly) related to self-reported risk-taking in terms of financial, health-related, and recreational risk-taking, fearlessness, novelty sensation seeking, intensity sensation seeking, and drug use. However, we did not find an association between D and behavioral risk-taking. Our findings provide insights into the relation between aversive personality and risk-taking, but also point to inconsistencies depending on the specific nature of risk-taking studied.


2020 ◽  
pp. 027243162093919
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Dykas ◽  
Joanna Goplen ◽  
Craig K. Ewart ◽  
Brooks B. Gump

This study examined how early adolescents’ risk taking propensity and urban stress were linked to their affiliation with risky peers. Participants ( n = 297; [Formula: see text] age = 10.48 years [ SD = 0.93 years]; 54% male; 58% Black/African American) completed a brief laboratory-based behavioral risk taking task. They also completed self-report measures of urban stress and the number of close friends engaged in various risky behaviors (e.g., smoking, stealing). Results supported a link between risk taking propensity and affiliation with risky peers that was moderated by urban stress. After controlling for demographic factors, early adolescents’ risk taking propensity was positively associated with affiliation with risky peers at high levels of urban stress but not at low levels of urban stress.


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.


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.


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