The Co-Occurrence of Risky Behaviors among High School Adolescents in Tehran

Risky behaviors are defined as beha-viors that increase the possibility of adverse physical, psychological, and sociological consequences. In adolesc-ents such behaviors tend to be interr-elated and have co variation patterns. Due to its unfavorable and irremedia- ble consequences such as pregnancy, infective diseases, and HIV, sexual risk-taking has been recently highlig-hted more than other high-risk behavi- ors. Current study focuses on the freq- uency and co-occurrence of various risk-takings, and the influence of diff-erent demographic factors. The sample included 807 high school students)436 girls(, studying in grade 2, 3, and 4, selected through stratified sampling proportionate to the size. To measure risk-taking behaviors the Ira- nian Adolescents Risk-Taking Scale (Zadeh Mohammadi, Ahmadabadi, an- d Heidari, 2007) was used. Results showed positive and signific-ant relations between the high-risk be-haviors. The highest sexual risk – taki-ng variance among aodolescents could be found in relation with alcohol, being with opposite sex, drug use, gender, and social status.The results suggest that health author-ities, and Ministry of Education shoul-d keep students away from developm-ent of high-risk behaviors.