While studies have shown a consistent association between athlete status and risk-taking behavior (RTB), comparatively little is known about the mechanisms that potentially account for the influence of athletic participation on RTBs. The current study tests a theoretical model linking sensation seeking to RTBs through the perception of risk and…

Among adolescents (ages 12-17) and young adults (ages 18-25) enrolled in Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), 0.5% of adolescents had opioid use disorder (OUD), 3.0% had other risky opioid use, 3.4% had another substance use disorder, and 21.6% used other substances without disorder. Compared to adolescents, the prevalence…

Purpose: Young adult's drinking is about pleasure, a communal practice of socialising together in a friendship group. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the evolving support practices of drinking groups for better targeting of health communications messages. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative descriptive study examined the…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how and why Saudi Arabian students engage in specific health risk behaviours (HRBs), and if there are gender differences. Design/methodology/approach: In order to find out the situation regarding university students in Saudi Arabia, quantitative data were collected by administering…

This study explored the relationship between adolescent risk behavior and flow, a state of optimal experience characterized by a spontaneous and fluid, yet deeply focused state of awareness (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996). The purpose of the study was to better understand adolescent risk taking, as well as how it may interact with experiences of flow.…

Adolescence is characterized by increasing incidence of health risk behaviors, including experimentation with drugs and alcohol. To fill the gap in our understanding of the associations between risky decision-making and health risk behaviors, we investigated associations between laboratory-based risky decision-making using the Stoplight task and…

Objective: The goal of this study was to (a) investigate the association between nonprescription stimulant use (NPSU) and risky behaviors, including risky sex, driving, financial behaviors, and drug use and (b) collect preliminary evidence on mechanisms that may link NPSU to risky behaviors. Participants: A sample of 555 college students was…

The operation of all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) by youth has contributed to the incidence of serious and fatal injuries among children. This study explored factors related to the frequency with which youth wore a helmet and refrained from engaging in three risky driving behaviors (driving at risky speeds, on paved roads and on unfamiliar terrain)…

Background: Chronic disease risk factors tend to cooccur. Purpose: This study examined the cooccurrence of 8 negative health behaviors in a representative sample of urban adolescents to inform educational interventions. Methods: The prevalence, cooccurrence, and clustering of suicide attempt, lifetime history of sexual activity, tobacco use, cell…

Injury is a significant public health problem among youth. A primary cause of adolescent injury is risk-taking behavior, including alcohol use, interpersonal violence and road-related risks. A novel approach to prevention is building on friendships by encouraging adolescents to intervene into their friends' risk taking. Fifty-one early adolescents…

Affective influences may play a key role in adolescent risk taking, but have rarely been studied. Using an audiovisual method of affect induction, two experimental studies examined the effect of positive affect on risk perceptions in adolescence and young adulthood. Outcomes were risk perceptions regarding drinking alcohol, smoking a cigarette,…

This study investigated the relation between symptoms and a variety of health-related risk-taking behaviors during adolescence. A survey of 20,745 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health provided data for analysis. Adolescents who reported more depressive symptoms were found to wear seatbelts less often, wear…

Objective: The authors examined drinking and driving after drinking before and after turning 21. Participants: Participants were drawn from first time college students who were taking part in a 4-year longitudinal study of alcohol use and behavioral risks. Methods: Web-based longitudinal surveys collected data on drinking and driving after…

The 2013 North Carolina Youth Risk Behavior Survey (NCYRBS) was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and adapted by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) to monitor health-risk behaviors and to measure progress toward achieving Healthy North Carolina 2020 objectives. The survey, administered in…

"Pregaming" or "pre-loading" is what college students call the practice of drinking alcohol in a private setting prior to attending an organized event or social activity where alcohol might or might not be served. According to one student, "Pregames are usually a fun part of the night because you're just with a few close…