No description available.

Instagram’s photo-centric social networking model has been found to provide a source of significant social influence on users’ behaviors offline, with such effects being especially prominent amongst adolescents given their position in the midst of a critical neurological/psychological development period. This study aims to use an online self-report questionnaire measuring susceptibility to negative social comparison and likelihood to engage in prosocial behavior as well as a 2x2x2 analysis of covariance to examine the effects of viewing risky stimuli, social desirability, and age (young vs older adolescence) to determine why certain adolescents are more prone to engaging in risky behaviors (defined as smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, and using cannabis) than their peers. The researcher proposes those with high susceptibility to engage in negative social comparison as well as a low likelihood to engage in prosocial behavior will be most likely to engage in risky behavior. Additionally, the researcher also predicts that older adolescents viewing risky images with high social desirability feedback will be more willing than any other group to engage in risky behavior. They will also rate the perceived risk of a subsequent risky behavior shown in a photo as less risky than any other group

The concept of a celebrity has shifted with the rise of social media influencers, individuals with massive influence on young audiences across different social media platforms. Despite extensive research on risk-taking behavior amongst adolescents as well as the impact of celebrities on adolescent behavior, there has been no research on the specific role influencers have on adolescent behaviors and attitudes. The purpose of this proposed study is to investigate different types of YouTubers and if they have an influence on adolescent risk perception. Using an experimental longitudinal design, participants aged 15 to 18 will be randomly assigned into an experimental condition (where they will be required to watch YouTube videos by influencers that promote negative and reckless behavior) or a control condition (where they will be required to watch neutral YouTube videos of technology reviews). They will watch the videos for eight weeks, and then fill out a risk perception questionnaire. It is predicted that those in the experimental condition will have a significantly reduced risk perception. It is also predicted that males will have a significantly reduced risk perception than females. Lastly, it is predicted that frequent exposure to external violent media, aside from YouTube, will lead to a reduced risk perception. The research findings will have important implications on how to prevent adolescents from making risky decisions that put themselves and others in harm, as well inform parents and social media companies such as YouTube on what content is appropriate for adolescents.

Numerous consequences of sexual assault have been identified, including psychological consequences such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and health-risk behaviors such as substance misuse. Previous research has indicated that survivors of sexual assault may engage in substance misuse (i.e. alcohol and other illicit and prescription drug use) in attempt to suppress negative thoughts, memories, and flashbacks of the assault. The present study seeks to expand on and examine health-risk behaviors among undergraduate college women after the experience of sexual assault. Although many researchers have focused on the use of alcohol following sexual assault, less have studied non-medical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) as an alternative method of maladaptive coping. NMUPD has recently been identified as the fastest rising recreational substance among college populations. With NMUPD becoming a norm among college students in recreational settings, exploring NMUPD for alternative uses seems like the next logical step in research. This study views sexual assault on a continuum starting from unwanted sexual contact and ending in completed rape. This study aims to bridge the gap in research by attempting to connect the risky behavior of NMUPD to coping with any experience on the sexual assault continuum among college undergraduate women. Participants with and without a history of sexual assault were recruited for the present study. Participants completed a measure of sexual assault history and severity, along with questionnaires assessing current alcohol, marijuana, and NMUPD use

According to the CDC, young people, aged 15-24 years, share the greatest risk of new sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and the negative impact of alcohol and drug use. The purpose of this quantitative study, based on the theory of social-psychological problem-behavior, was to analyze the 2013 YRBSS secondary data and document if a relationship existed between race/ethnicity and youth sexual behavior, alcohol consumption, and drug use for the 13,583 survey participants. A Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and Chi-Square were conducted to answer the research questions. Results indicated that American Indian/Alaskan Natives were most likely to report first sexual activity before 11 years old (7.5%), while Asians were most likely to report never having sex (76.6%). Race/ethnicity also impacted all other variables, such as drugs, with a mixture of results. Hispanic/Latinos were most likely to report higher alcohol consumption (15.12%) compared to Multiple Hispanic (5.12%), while, Multiple Non-Hispanic were more likely to report use of drugs before sexual activity (9.7%) compared to Hispanic Latinos (7.99%). Social change implication of the study called for developed and effective sustainable interventions to help youth with behavior, and it required full integration of race/ethnicity as prerequisites in alleviation strategy. Dissemination plans involved use of public health campaigns, school workshops, and churches to fight the negative impact on youth.

Suicidality and non-suicidal self-injury are highly prevalent on college campuses and death by suicide is the number two cause of death for that age demographic. Even with such a deadly public health concern, little is known about how self-harm behavior can be prevented or effectively treated. Research has suggested that differences in affect regulation may differentiate those who engage in self-harm from those who do not, but many of these studies have examined disparate pieces of affect regulation without addressing the overlap and interaction of regulatory behaviors. The field must discover what specific aspects of affect regulation go awry, if self-harmers demonstrate a different pattern of affect regulatory strategies, and if subtypes of persons who engage in self-harm have different patterns of affect regulation that will need to be addressed differently in treatment and prevention efforts. The purpose of this study is to explore these associations between affect regulation, specifically emotion regulation and coping, and self-harm behaviors. Two-hundred and fifty undergraduates completed surveys on emotion regulation, coping strategies, and health-risk behavior. An extremely high prevalence of self-harm and risky behavior was discovered (nearly 47% endorsing self-harm and 86% endorsing risky behavior). Results from three different measures of emotion regulation and coping strategies were factor analyzed to produce three factors, corresponding to maladaptive, active adaptive, and passive adaptive (distress tolerance) affect regulation strategies. Persons with and without a history of self-harm behavior endorsed similar levels of adaptive affect regulation strategy utilization, but those with a history of self-harm behavior had much higher utilization of maladaptive affect regulation strategies. Similar patterns of affect regulation strategy utilization were found for persons engaging in risky behavior (sexual, alcohol, illicit substances, disordered eating, safety, and smoking) and all subtypes of persons engaging in self-harm (i.e., non-suicidal self-injury, suicide attempts, or both). Those who had engaged in self-harm could be differentiated from participants with no history of self-harm behavior or ideation on the basis of their utilization of maladaptive affect regulation strategies. Implications for prevention and intervention are discussed.

This dissertation presents three papers applying health economics to the study of risky behaviors. The first uses data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to examine the relationship between adverse events and risky behaviors among adolescents. Substance use responses to experiencing either of two adverse events--violent crime victimization or death of a non-family member one felt close to--explain 6.7 percent of first cigarette use, and 14.3 percent of first use of illegal drugs other than marijuana. Analyses of exercise, a positive coping mechanism, find shock-responses consistent with a coping-response, but not with rational, time-inconsistent, or non-rational drivers considered here. I conclude that distressing events lead to risky behaviors, with a coping response contributing to this effect.

Emotion dysregulation (ED) is characterized by responding to emotions maladaptively, including lack of awareness/clarity about emotional responses, nonacceptance of emotions, inability to control impulses or pursue goals during emotional distress, and lack of access to emotion regulation strategies. ED has been associated with increased rates of high-risk behaviors, including criminal behaviors. For instance, Moore, Tull, and Gratz (2018) found that among people in residential substance use treatment, individuals with BPD symptoms who reported difficulty controlling impulses during times of emotional distress had more criminal charges; however, this relationship has not been explored in a non-clinical sample. Research does show that poor ER is associated with increased engagement in high-risk behaviors for college populations, including risky sex, deliberate self-harm, and occurrence of negative alcohol-related consequences (Dvorak et al., 2014; Weiss et al., 2015), but studies have yet to examine the link between ED and criminal behavior. This study examined whether ED was associated with criminal behavior and whether there were gender differences in this relationship. Participants (N=638) were college students aged 18-24 recruited from 8 universities within the United States. They completed a battery of self-report questionnaires online that examined psychological and social variables. ED was assessed using the 18-item Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS-18) and criminal behavior was measured with two questions (i.e. Before you were 18 years old, did you ever do anything that you could have been arrested for, regardless of whether or not you were caught or arrested?; Since you were 18 years old, did you ever do anything that you could have been arrested for, regardless of whether or not you were caught or arrested?). Results showed that 19.4% of participants reported engaging in criminal behavior before age of 18 and 17.1% reported engaging in criminal behavior since age 18. Point biserial correlations showed that difficulty controlling impulses when distressed (r = .17, p < .001) and difficulty accessing emotion regulation strategies (r = .13, p < .001) were associated with engaging in criminal behavior before age of 18. Additionally, the difficulty controlling behaviors when distressed (r = .13, p < .001) was associated with criminal behavior since age 18. Analysis of gender differences showed that these relationships were significant and positive for females but nonsignificant for males. Understanding the facets of ED that predict risky behavior, in particular criminal behavior, is key for the development of interventions for individuals at risk of contact with the criminal justice system. Future research should examine the effectiveness of interventions meant to decrease ED within college populations.

No description available.

No description available.