| The present study investigated the effectiveness of adolescents' risky decision-making model in relation to their perceptions of four main prospective parental deterrents: finding-out (detection), punishment, severity of punishment, and expression of disappointment, and examined the dimensionality of a newly developed instrument of high-risk behavior. Participants were 360 high school adolescents in a large Midwestern public school. The results supported that three components of the model (i.e., finding out, punishment, and disappointment) were significant predictors of adolescent risky decision-making. The study also examined a newly developed measure of high-risk behavior (Risky Behavior Scale). Initial psychometric properties of the scale were established via an item analysis, Cronbach's alpha, and a principal components analysis. Three dimensions emerged from the analysis: problem behaviors, delinquency, and defiance to parental authority. Results related to the scale's dimensionality are discussed in terms of implications to future research and measurement of the construct. |
