Sex, Parent Attachment, Emotional Adjustment, and Risk-Taking Behaviors

Abstract

Background: Risk-taking behaviors are common and, unabated, can lead to serious consequences, such as unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, drug and alcohol abuse, injuries, and death. Despite their prevalence and consequences, the psychological determinants underlying these behaviors are not well understood. Objectives: The study aimed to evaluated the role of Sex, Parent Attachment, Emotional Adjustment on Risk-Taking Behaviors. Patients and Methods: To test the role of close relationships on risk-taking behaviors,we used a correctional field design and examined the influence of parent attachment on these behaviors while accounting for participants’ sex and emotional adjustment, measured in the form of self-esteem and level of depression. A total of 269 participants from Amazon’s MTurk website completed our survey. Results: Results revealed differences between men and women on all six scales that assessed for risk-taking behavior; however no differences were evident by sex on levels of attachment to mother or attachment to father or on levels of adjustment. Our results also indicate that attachment to mother is directly and inversely associated with risk taking behavior, and that adjustment is a mediator between attachment to father and risk-taking behavior. Conclusions: These results and others are presented and discussed in the context of the literature along with implications for counseling and for future research in this area.