Why do they do it? Affective motivators in adolescents' decisions to participate in risk behaviours

Abstract

Affective motivators have been targeted in many theories as playing a critical role in adolescents' decisions to participate in a variety of risky behaviours that may have life-altering consequences. In this study, we examined the role of several of these affective motivators across low and high experience groups to determine their perceived in¯uence on the desire to participate in each of ® ve risky behaviours (drinking alcohol, using drugs, having sex, smoking cigarettes, and skipping school). The affective motivators included those that: (a) promote risky behaviours by enhancing pleasant affective states (sensation seeking, social/emotional), (b) promote risky behaviours by reducing or avoiding negative affective states (negative emotions, tension reduction), and (c) deter risky behaviours by avoiding anticipated regret (e.g. of harming future). Results showed that the perceived motivational strength of the affective goals differed substantially between low and high experience groups and across the different risky behaviours. Adolescents with less experience were much more focused on avoiding the negative affective consequences associated with regretting unfavourable future outcomes. In contrast, adolescents with more experience participating in a risky behaviour held stronger beliefs that participation in the behaviour could both enhance positive and reduce negative affective states. We describe how the perceived importance of these motives varies across the risky behaviours, and offer insights into the likely motivational changes that occur as an adolescent moves from no experience to chronic experience engaging in risky behaviours.

Sexual Regret in College Students

“…Although regret as a general topic has been investigated, there is a paucity of research on regretted sexual experiences. The literature that does address sexual regret often focuses on anticipated regret (e.g., Caffray & Schneider, 2000) or on regrets specifically associated with one's first sexual experience (e.g., Dickson et al, 1998). Given that 71.6% of college students report having at least one sexual partner within the last year and 10.4% report having four or more sexual partners in the last year (American College Health Association, 2004), the opportunity for sexual regret is present.…”

Relation Affective Entre Apprenant-Enseignant: Cas De Certains Lycees De Cȏte d`Ivoire

“…C'est la raison pour laquelle, dans une autre étude, nous avons souligné que les adolescents sont capables de ressentir du regret en contexte individuel, mais semblent minimiser ou ressentir moins fortement ce sentiment en contexte social. Sachant que l'anticipation de cette émotion joue un rôle crucial dans l'évitement (ou l'inhibition) des conduites de prise de risque (Caffray & Schneider, 2000;Houdé, 2011), il semble judicieux de prendre en compte ce sentiment lors des campagnes d'éducation et de prévention.…”

Analiza školskih izostanaka s obzirom na bračni status roditelja

“…Emocionalna odvojenost od obitelji jedan je od faktora koji potiče adolescente na riskantna ponašanja kako bi se smanjio osjećaj nelagode i stresa. Oni vjeruju da im ovakvo ponašanje pomaže savladali negativna afektivna stanja uzrokovana problemima u obitelji (Caffray i Schneider, 2000). Popović-Ćitić, Žunić-Pavlović (2005) izdvajaju četiri ključna faktora rizika koji svojim prisustvom u obiteljskom okružju mogu djelovati na povećanje vjerojatnoće pojava svih oblika rizičnih ponašanja: obiteljska povijest problema u ponašanju, problemi u funkcioniranju obitelji, obiteljski konflikti i stavovi roditelja koji podržavaju rizična ponašanja.…”