Investigating the Relationships Between Spiritual Well-being and Other Well-being Dimensions, and Attitude Toward High-risk Behaviors in Adolescents, with Emphasis on the Mediating Role of Personality Traits

Abstract

Background: Research indicates the increasing prevalence of high-risk behaviors among adolescents, which may have many causes. Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between spiritual well-being and other dimensions of well-being and the tendency for high-risk behaviors in adolescents, with an emphasis on the mediating role of personality traits. Methods: This is a descriptive and correlational study. The statistical population of the study consisted of all high school students in the second semester of the academic year 2018 - 2019 in the city of Tehran. Data collection tools were Spiritual, Psychological, Social, and Physical Well-being questionnaires, Iranian Adolescent Risk questionnaire, and PID-5 Personality Characteristics questionnaire-short version. SPSS V.22, R programming V.3.6, and AMOS V.24 were used to analyze the data. Results: The results showed that there is a significant relationship between spiritual well-being and other aspects of well-being, i.e., physical health (r = 0.28), social well-being (r = 0.39), psychological well-being (r = 0.44), with P < 0.01 for all. There was also a significant negative relationship between spiritual well-being and components of high-risk behavior (r = 0.48, P < 0.01). In addition, personality traits were found to play a significant role as a mediating variable in the relationship between spiritual well-being and high-risk behaviors. Conclusions: Spiritual well-being is a factor affecting other aspects of well-being and reducing risky behaviors, and personality traits play an important role in mediating the relationship between spiritual well-being and other dimensions of well-being and high-risk behaviors.