Associations Between Peer Comparison,Self-control And Adolescent Risk-taking Behaviors

Risk-taking behavior would bring adolescents many negative consequences,such as high incidence and mortality,however,there are increasing risk-taking behaviors including smoking,alcohol abuse,dangerous driving,unsafe sexy behavior and so on,to which many researchers have paid more and more attention.In accordance with the current tendency,problem behavior theory(PBT)posits that risk-taking behavior could be investigated from a developmental perspective and the interaction between individual and environment.Therefore,based on PBT,this study will explore the associations between peer comparison(environmental factors),self-control level(individual factors),their interaction and adolescent risk-taking behaviors.Study 1 was designed to examine main effects of peer comparison and self-control as well as their interaction on adolescent risk-taking behaviors.In study 1,2×2 two factors between subjects design was conducted,and two factors analysis of variance was used to analyze data.The results showed there was significant main effect of peer comparison,but no significant main effect of self-control.The interaction between peer comparison and self-control was marginally significant.In Study 2,we further investigated the interaction between peer comparison feedback and self-control on adolescent risk-taking behaviors.In study 2,2×2 two factors mixed experimental design was conducted,and repeated measures mixed analysis of variance was used to analyze data.The results showed there was significant interaction between peer comparison feedback and self-control.Finally,the conclusions are as follows:(1)Peer comparison has a significant positive effect on adolescent risk-taking behavior.And adolescent will have more risk-taking behaviors when peer comparison exists;(2)Self-control cannot significantly predict adolescent risk-taking behaviors;(3)Peer comparison and self-control can significantly interact on adolescent risk-taking behaviors: high self-control adolescents have more risk-taking behaviors when there exists peer comparison;(4)Peer comparison feedback and self-control can significantly interact on adolescent risk-taking behaviors: when there is a negative peer comparison feedback(namely scores lower than that of peers),adolescents with high levels of self-control will have more risk-taking behavior later.