The Study On The Relationship Of Adolescents' Reinforcement Sensitivity, Self-control Ability And Risk Behaviors

Objective:Risk behaviors refer to behaviors which would harm individuals'health and security directly or indirectly as well as lead to negative result. Adolescents get involved in risk behaviors easily because of the developmental characteristic of their body and mind. Consequently, researching the influencing factor and their mechanisms of adolescents' risk behaviors had become one of the concerning issues of the developmental psychology. The current research examined the relations of the reinforcement sensitivity and self-control ability with adolescents' risk behaviors as well as established and tested several path models which explained how reinforcement sensitivity and self control ability effect adolescents'risk behaviors.Methods:1.Literature summarizing. The current research adopted the literature summarizing method to review the relationships between adolescents'risk behaviors and reinforcement sensitivity and self-control ability. On this basis, the research hypothesis was built.2. Questionnaire survey. This research surveyed 938 middle school students from 6 schools in Hunan province. The data of participants'reinforcement sensitivity and self-control ability and risk behaviors measured by the Chinese version of the BIS/BAS Scale made by Caver and White,5 items from the Middle School Students'Self-control Ability Questionnaire made by Wang Hongjiao and Lu Jiamei, and the Chinese version of the Risk Behavior Questionnaire for Adolescent made by Auerbach and Abela was analyzed and disscussed. Results and Conclusion:1. The relationships between adolescents' reinforcement sensitivity and self-control ability and risk behaviors are significant:the reward sensitivity was significantly and negatively correlated with the self-control ability, the punishment sensitivity was significantly and positively correlated with the self-control ability; the reward sensitivity was significantly and positively correlated with the risk behaviors, the punishment sensitivity was significantly and negatively correlated with the risk behaviors; the self-control ability was significantly and negatively correlated with the risk behaviors.2. Reinforcement sensitivity are effective predictors of self-control ability; reinforcement sensitivity and self-control ability are effective predictors of adolescents'risk behaviors.3. The path model which explained how reinforcement sensitivity and self-control ability effect risk behaviors was a partial mediating model:reinforcement sensitivity effect risk behaviors directly as well as indirectly through the mediating effects of self-control ability.