Typology of Strategies for Taking Care of Risky Behaviors Based on the Family Socio-Economic Status

Tobacco use, narcotics, drug abuse, consumption of alcohol, having unsafe sexual relations and other such behaviours are risky behaviors that tend to cause great concerns in families. Parents try to cope with high-risk behaviors through care strategies. The purpose of this research was to determine the typology of strategies for taking care of risky behaviors based on to the family socioeconomic status (SES).

This was a quantitative descriptive-correlational research including all the urban families of Tabriz, Iran, from among whom a sample of 384 families was selected by the multi-stage cluster method. Two measurement tools (checklist for high-risk behavior care strategies and a family SES questionnaire) were used to gather data, the one-way analysis of variance (F) test and linear regression being used to determine the relationships between the variables.

The means of strategies for taking care of risky behaviors were significantly different based on the SES of the family, the upper classes adopting a more appropriate (procedural) strategy to take care of children against risky behaviors than the lower classes.

Families with a medium and low SES use ineffective care strategies (inefficient and momentary) to cope with risky behaviors. In order to improve the public's health, it is necessary to adopt prevention-based cultural-educational policies to transform ineffective care strategies to procedural strategies.