investigating the mediating role of academic self-regulation in the relationship between risky behaviors and social competence among high school students with learning disabilities

Background: strengthening students with self-efficacy in emotional management and self-regulation can be a potent deterrent against risky behaviors. this study sought to explore the mediating effect of academic self-regulation on the relationship between risky behaviors and social competence among high school students with learning disabilities (lds).methods: this was a descriptive correlational study. the population encompassed all high school students with lds in ahvaz, iran from february 2023 to april 2023. one hundred fifty-eight students were chosen using cluster sampling and received research questionnaires. the study tools comprised the iranian adolescents risk-taking scale (iars), social competence questionnaire (scq), and academic self-regulation questionnaire (srq-a). using structural equation modeling (sem), the hypothesized model underwent evaluation, and bootstrapping was utilized to assess indirect relationships. data analysis was conducted with spss version 26 and amos version 25.results: the mean and standard deviation (sd) for students’ risky behaviors, social competence, and academic self-regulation were 86.75±12.39, 112.18±24.25, and 42.05±9.86, respectively. the findings highlighted a significant relationship between social competence and academic self-regulation (β=0.71, p<0.001) and between academic self-regulation and risky behaviors (β=-0.65, p<0.001). however, the direct link between social competence and risky behaviors was insignificant (β=-0.16, p=0.115). however, the relationship between social competence and students’ risky behaviors became significant when mediated by academic selfregulation (p<0.001). in the final model, the values for cfi and rmsea were 0.98 and 0.041, respectively.conclusion: the study’s outcomes indicated that the final model was well-fitted and crucial for recognizing factors influencing risky behaviors in students with lds. enhancing social competence and academic self-regulation might offer a pathway to mitigate risky behaviors among these students.