Predicting High-Risk Behaviors in Female Adolescents Based on Psychological Motivations

Background: more recently, gender differences in risk behaviors are less common for females than males to exhibit high-risk behavior. the aim of this research was to predict high-risk behaviors based on psychological motives in female teenagers. methods: in this cross-sectional study, all high school students in the academic year of 2019-2020 in shiraz, iran were the statistical population of the current report. using the convenience sampling method, a sample of 180 people was selected from this statistical population. the iranian adolescent risk-taking scale (iars) and scale for the motivation of risk-taking activity (sbm) were used to measure the studied variables. results: age range in this study: 15-18 years old, m=15.50, sd=1.40. as the findings revealed, the values of β and t indicated that the motivation for excitement (β=0.346; t= 3.317; p=0.001) and for irresponsibility (β=0.202; t=1.975, p=0.05) played the most pivotal role in predicting the tendency to use narcotics, respectively. in addition, the values of β and t also demonstrated that motivation to seek excitement (β=0.351; t=3.412; p=0.001) played the most important role in predicting teenage girls' tendency to drink. finally, irresponsibility (β=0.207; t=1.972; p=0.05) and accounting (β=-0.191; t=-2.094; p=0.038) had the most important role in the prediction of smoking tendency variable, respectively. conclusions: the findings showed that the emotional and unhealthy motivations had the most pivotal role in predicting female adolescents' tendency to use drugs. moreover, emotional motivation played the most important role in predicting the tendency of teenage girls to use alcohol.