Personal and social predictors of risky sexual behaviours in Iranian youth

Abstract

This study investigates the power of psychological variables of depression, self-esteem and impulsivity as well as social variables of perceived social support and subjective socio-economic status in predicting risky sexual behaviours. To accomplish this study, all those individuals who were commuting to the Behavioural Diseases Counseling Center of Urmia over the last 6 years were considered and then, 80 individuals were selected as the research sample using available sampling method. The Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, researcher-made scale for assessing risky sexual behaviours, Beck depression inventory, Barratt impulsivity scale, Zimet perceived social support scale and researcher-made questionnaire of subjective social status were used in this study. The results showed that all the variables have had significant roles in predicting the risky sexual behaviours. Depression has had the most power to predict risky sexual behaviours. After that self-esteem, perceived social support and subjective social status could predict important parts of variances in the risky behaviours (R² = 0.57). Regarding the mentioned results, it may be concluded that psychological factors to commit risky sexual behaviours. Thus, personal factors-based preventive and therapeutic programmes for sexual risky behaviours for youth are recommended.

Keywords: Risky sexual behaviours, personal predictors, social predictors, ex post facto study.