Investigation of Motives for Adolescent Risk Taking in Terms of Egocentrism, Peer Pressure, Ses and Gender

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the motives for adolescents risk taking and to
analyze motives for adolescent risk taking from the perspectives of egocentrism, peer pressure and
socio-economic status variants. 905 students attending four high schools in Ankara took part in the
research. There were four different measurement scales in the research. The first one is “Motives for
Adolescents’ Risk Taking Scale” which Henry and Kloep’s (2001) classification was taken as the
basis to determine the motives of risk taking in adolescents’. During the scale improvement stage
correction and elucidation factor analyses were developed. Motives for Adolescents’ Risk Taking
Scale, Revised Personal Fable, Revised Imaginary Audience and Peer Pressure Scale were used in this
study. As a result of multiple linear regressions analyzes personal fable which is a dimension of
egocentrism has been stated as the variable which has the most estimating power. The motives for
adolescent risk taking are revealed by personal fable, imaginary audience and peer pressure and a
developmental point of view is presented.