THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERSONALITY TRAITS AND RISK BEHAVIORS AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS

Abstract

Objective : This study was designed for survey of relationship between personality traits and risk behaviors among college students in Tehran. For this purpose 8 domains of risk behaviors were studied: unsafe behaviors, violence, suicide, cigarette smoking, alcohol use, substance abuse, unhealthy nutrition and physical inactivity. Method : this research is a correlation study with prediction method. Subjects were 914 college students with mean of age 23.13 that were students in bachelor or master grades in one of universities in Tehran. They were selected through cluster sampling. For collecting data Big 5 personality Scale (Goldberg, 1999) and risk behaviors questionnaire (National College Health Risk Behavior Survey, 2007) were used. Findings: There is a significant correlation between personality variables and risk behaviors. Consciousness, Emotional Stability, and Agreeableness are important variable in prediction of risk behaviors. This regression model can explain 30% of total variance of risk behaviors score. P-value was lower than 0/05. Conclusion: The results of this research indicated that personality variables are important etiological factors in youth risk behaviors. Likewise, since personality traits are constant and related to childhood, interventions for risk behaviors prevention should be started from childhood in the family.