Risk-Taking Behavior Among Adolescents

Abstract

This research aimed to Identify the amount of Risk-taking behavior among secondary school students in the city center of Erbil city, and it also to seeks examine the statistical significance of differences based on gender, field of the study, and type of school. The study sample included 500 adolescence students from the preparatory stage. They were selected from whole population of (39,405) students (male and female) for the academic year 2024–2025, covering public and private schools in both the scientific and literary specialty. The sample represented about 1.27% of the whole population and was selected using cluster accidental sample. After ensuring the psychometric properties of the two scales validity and reliability and analyzing the collected data, the study reached several key findings: The mean score for Risk-taking behavior was (43.55) which is notably lower than the theoretical mean of (81). There are no statistically significant differences in risk-taking behavior and self-humiliation based on academic track (scientific, literary).The analysis also revealed statistically significant gender differences in Risk-taking behavior, with males scoring higher than females. Furthermore, the variable under study explained a portion of the variance in Risk-taking behavior, with gender having a weaker but still statistically significant effect in favor of males. Based on these results finding the researchers offered a number of recommendations and proposals.