A Structural Model to Risky Behaviors in 14-17 Years Old Adolescents Based on Anxiety Sensitivity Mediated by Self-acceptance

One of the fundamental problems that adolescents face is the occurrence of high-risk behaviors. These behaviors are destructive and maladaptive that have adverse physical, psychological, and social consequences for the individual. Self-acceptance is a direct behavioral strategy such as effective problem-oriented coping that affects adolescents' adjustment and thus may have a direct effect on adolescents' high-risk behaviors. Conditional self-worth is one of the factors that causes anxiety and stress, while unconditional self-acceptance provides individual adjustment. Anxiety sensitivity explains the predisposition of people to fear and catastrophic interpretations of anxiety symptoms and causes the persistence of anxiety disorders, as one of the etiological factors involved in anxiety disorders. This study aimed to present a structural model of risky behaviors in adolescents based on anxiety sensitivity mediated by self-acceptance.

The present study was descriptive and correlational. The statistical population of the study included all adolescents aged 14 to 18 years living in Tehran City, Iran in the academic year of 2017-2018. Of whom, 500 people were selected by convenience sampling from schools. Out of these students, 496 were eligible for analysis. The inclusion criteria were volunteer participation, adolescents in primary and secondary high school, aged 14 to 18 years, and no history of receiving psychological treatment. The exclusion criteria were incomplete answers to the questionnaires and lack of consent to continue cooperating in the research. The study tools included the Risky Behaviors Questionnaire (Mohammadkhani, 2007), Unconditional Self-Acceptance Questionnaire (Chamberlain & Haaga, 2001), and the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (Reiss et al., 1986). The Pearson correlation test and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data with SPSS and AMOS software. The significance level of the tests was considered 0.05.

In the present study, the results showed that the total path coefficient between anxiety sensitivity and risky behaviors was positive and significant (p=0.001, β=0.27). The path coefficient between conditional self-acceptance and risky behaviors was positive and significant (p=0.001, β=0.32). The path coefficient between unconditional self-acceptance and risky behaviors was negative and significant (p=0.001, β= -0.28). The indirect path coefficient between anxiety sensitivity and risky behaviors mediated by conditional and unconditional self-acceptance was positive and significant (p=0.001, β= 0.150). Also, the hypothesized model had fitness with the collected data (χ2=164.15, CFI=0.954, GFI=0.951, AGFI=0.919, and RMSEA=0.071).

Based on the findings of this study, anxiety sensitivity significantly predicts high-risk behaviors in adolescents with the mediation of conditional and unconditional self-acceptance.