Design and Validation of Youth High-risk Behaviors Short Scale

The aim of this research design and validation of youth high-risk behaviors short scale. In this research, descriptive-survey method was used. The statistical population was all students of Mashhad universities which 681 students were randomly (Lottery) selected from multi-stage cluster type. The tools used also included: youth high-risk behaviors short scale developed by researcher, which has seven components: tendency to drug, alcohol, smoking, violence, self-harm, dangerous sex, and dangerous driving. This scale has a five-point Likert scale and is scored from strongly disagree = 0 to strongly agree = 4, as well as the Big Five-Inventory (2007) and Psychological Well-being Scale (1989). The results showed that the 14-item high-risk behaviors scale has good psychometric properties and is norm with Iranian society. The validity of the scale was good with the methods of construct validity (confirmatory factor analysis) and convergent and divergent validity (p<0.01). The Results of confirmatory factor analysis also confirmed the seven-factor nature of the scale and the obtained model had a good fit with the research data. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the whole scale was 0.82. Therefore, due to the unique features, researchers and health professionals can use this tool in their future studies.