Resilience, Decision-Making And Risk Behaviors Among Early Adolescents In Penang
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Date
2018-02
Authors
Loke, Wai Chuen
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Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
Resilience is the ability of individuals to tap into the available resources to increase the likelihood of positive adaptation and reduce the probability of disturbances in functioning in the face of adversity (Goldstein & Brooks, 2012; Masten, 2014; Ungar, 2013).The present study sought to determine the relationship between resilience and risk behaviors among early adolescents with decision-making acting as a mediator. Form 1 and Form 2 students (N = 65) were recruited at a high-needs school in Penang. All participants completed a self-report questionnaire (The Child and Youth Resilience Measure) and a computerized task (The Balloon Analogue Risk Task-Youth Version). Participants’ Disciplinary Demerit Records in school were obtained as the measure of risk behaviors. The bootstrapping method and macro codes for the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) developed by Preacher and Hayes (2004) were used as the statistical mediation analysis in the present study. Given that resilience encompasses three dimensions, namely individual, family, and contextual level factors, further analyses were conducted on each of them. The results indicated that decision-making significantly mediated the association between resilience and risk behaviors among early adolescents. Similar findings were found for individual and family levels factors. The relationship between contextual level factors and risk behaviors could only be partially explained by decision-making. The findings from the present study presented an explanation for the relationship between resilience and risk behaviors. It suggests adolescents should be taught decision-making skills early on as decision making has an important implication on their engagement of risk behaviors in daily life.
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Keywords
Resilience, decision-making and risk behaviors , among early adolescents in Penang