Objectives: To document: (1) the prevalence of selected risk behaviours of high-school students in the Cape Peninsula; (2) whether the notion of a syndrome of adolescent risk behaviour is valid for this setting, and to investigate whether suicidal behaviour and behaviour exposing oneself to injury should be included in this syndrome; and (3) the relationships among risk behaviours, taking into account their influence upon one another. Design: The study was based on a cross-sectional survey utilising a self-completed questionnaire. Sample: A stratified random sample of 7 340 students was selected from 16 schools in the three major education departments. Results: High prevalences of risk behaviour were recorded; for example, 7,8% had tried to commit suicide in the previous year; 18, 1 % smoke cigarettes; 15,4% had engaged in binge drinking in the previous fortnight; 7,5% had ever smoked cannabis; 37,3% had failed to wear a seat belt on the last occasion this was possible; 9,8% of males had carried a knife to school and 25,0% had walked home alone at night in the previous month; and 17,4% had ever participated in sexual intercourse. With few exceptions, the unadjusted odds ratios for the relationships between pairs of these variables were significant. Between three and nine of 26 risk behaviours qualified for inclusion (p < 0,01) in each stepwise logistic regression model for each gender with each of the above risk behaviours as dependent variables. Cannabis smoking, alcohol bingeing, and exposure to danger in getting home at night were independently associated with having had sexual intercourse. Conclusions: Intervention programmes are needed to reduce the prevalence of risk behaviours in this population. The notion of a syndrome of adolescent risk behaviour is valid for this population, and both suicidal behaviour and behaviour exposing oneself to injury should be included in this syndrome. There are significant relationships between many adolescent risk behaviours even when the influence of other risk behaviours is taken into account. The probability of adverse sequalae of risk behaviours such as exposure to danger in getting home at night and sexual intercourse is amplified by the presence of selected other risk behaviours.

Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / The stage of adolescence is a transitional stage in human development that can be confusing and stressful as it involves adjusting to adulthood which comes with independence and responsibilities. Adolescents solidify their journey towards self-identity as they gradually detach from being completely dependent on their parents. They form new bonds with peers and other people and are bound to be experimental as they embark on a life discovery journey. Studies reveal that adolescents are increasingly engaging in risk-taking behaviours such as risky sexual behaviour, substance use and violence, despite the implementation of numerous behavioural change interventions

My dissertation consists of two essays on CFOs' promotion-based tournament incentives and performance-based equity incentives. The first essay examines the joint implications of CFOs' tournament incentives and equity incentives for firms' risk-taking. With the pay gap between the CEO and the CFO as the proxy for the CFO's tournament incentives, I find that the relationship between a firm's risk taking and the CFO's tournament incentives is non-monotonic. In particular, I show that below a certain level, increase in pay gap is associated with increase in firm risk taking (e.g., higher leverage, lower cash holding balance and higher R&D intensity). However, after reaching a certain level, the CEO-CFO pay gap negatively impacts risk-taking, as increase in pay gap is associated with lower leverage, higher cash holding balance and lower R&D intensity. With the CFO's pay-performance sensitivity as the proxy for the CFO's equity incentives, I find that the CFO's equity incentives negatively impact firm's R&D intensity, but have no significant impact on broader financial decisions such as capital structure and cash policy. Collectively, my findings indicate that CFO incentives play an important role in firm's risk-taking behaviors, and the effect of the CFO's tournament incentives is more pronounced. The second essay studies the impact of tournament incentives and equity incentives for CFOs on firms' earnings management, including accrual-based earnings management (e.g., total accruals, abnormal accruals) and real activities manipulation (e.g., abnormal discretionary expenditures, abnormal production costs). Measuring the CFO's tournament incentives as the pay gap between the CEO and the CFO, I show that the CFO's tournament incentives positively influence total accruals and abnormal accruals. Meanwhile, the CFO's equity incentives, measured as the CFO's pay-performance sensitivity, are found positively related to real activities manipulation proxies and total accruals. My findings show a consistent pattern before and after the passage of SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002), but the incentives' effects on earnings management have become less significant in the post-SOX period. Overall, the CFOs' tournament and equity incentives both play an important role in earnings management, but their relative importance lies in different earnings management techniques.

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Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is the leading cause of substance use disorders among Veterans and 55 to 75% of the population that are diagnosed with PTSD also receive a comorbid diagnosis of AUD. The co-diagnosis of PTSD/AUD is associated with neurocognitive changes such as increased impulsivity and risk-taking behavior, especially among individuals with combat-related trauma. Furthermore, increased neuroinflammation in subregions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) are suggested to contribute to these neurocognitive changes. To better understand the cognitive deficits associated with co-occurring PTSD/AUD we incorporated a probabilistic discounting task (PDT) to model risk-based decision-making in male and female Wistar rats that were exposed to restraint stress (RS) and chronic intermittent ethanol exposure (CIE). Following RS and CIE, rats underwent lever press training through a series of different training phases, in which one lever delivered a small reward 100% of the time, and the other a large reward, delivered with descending probability each trial block. Pressing the large-reward lever during the final two trial blocks when it is disadvantageous to do so is considered “risky” behavior. A week prior to PDT, rats were treated prophylactically with CDPPB, a positive allosteric modulator of the metabotropic glutamate type 5 (mGlu5) receptor, to determine if the cognitive deficits caused by stress and alcohol exposure could be prevented. Additionally, to determine if our model mimicked the neuroinflammatory mechanism seen in the human condition and the therapeutic effects of CDPPB, we assessed TNF-⍺ protein expression in a subset of rats. Our results indicated that male rats exposed to RS and CIE had significantly greater responding during the 3rd, 4th, and 5th risk blocks compared to all other groups. However, the administration of CDPPB reversed this effect. Females exposed to RS and CIE only displayed increased risky behavior at the highest risk block and this was also blocked with the administration of CDPPB. We also determined that RS and CIE significantly increased TNF-⍺ levels in the IfL cortex compared to either RS or CIE alone and the prophylactic administration of CDPPB reduced TNF-⍺ protein expression to control animal levels. In the present study, we demonstrate that exposure to stress and chronic alcohol leads to significant neurocognitive deficits resulting in increased risky decision-making, but these deficits can be attenuated through modulation of the mGlu5 receptor prior to behavioral testing. Additionally, these deficits could be due to deleterious neuroinflammation in subregions of the PFC.

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