The Influence of Cognitive, Personality, and Social Variables: Predicting Changes in Risky Behaviors over a Two-Year Interval
Year: 2005
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The present study examines whether the following variables measured in the Spring of 2002 can be used to predict changes in risky behaviors from 2002 to 2004: sensation seeking, positive outcome expectancy, negative outcome expectancy, peer attachment, parental attachment, family relationships, perceived peer involvement in the behaviors, need for cognition, religiosity, and time perspective.Participants included 51 male and 45 female college students, aged 20 to 29, who also completed the measures at Time 1.At Time 2, participants completed measures of frequency of involvement in various risky behaviors, and multiple stepwise regression analyses were conducted.It was found that the cognitive (outcome expectancies, time perspective, need for cognition) and social variables (parent attachment, peer attachment, family relationship, perceived peer involvement) explained more of the variance in the frequency of future risky behaviors and in the change in frequency over time than did the personality variable (sensation seeking).
Author: Melissa T. Buelow
Institution: Ohio University
Language: English
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2598459316