PERSONAL FACTORS OF RISKY BEHAVIOR OF ADOLESCENTS

The paper covers the study of the problem of risky behavior in adolescence. The risk is an essential attribute of human life. Sometimes, each of us has to make decisions, the consequences of which it is difficult to estimate. The adolescence is characterized by the reassessment of attitudes towards life, the emergence of the desire to carry out control over all its manifestations. Risky behavior can be one of the ways to implement such control when through own experience the surrounding reality is cognized. Risky behavior demonstrates both the negative and positive tendencies. Meanwhile, it is the adolescence when risky behavior causes an unpredictable threat to human health and life and is not sufficiently adapted and is poorly predicted. All the abovementioned indicates the reasonability of studying risky behavior of adolescents, identifying personal determinants of risk appetite. The author organized and carried out the empirical study of the interrelation between the personal characteristics of adolescents and the propensity to risky behavior. As a diagnostic tool, the author used A.G. Shmelev’s questionnaire to determine the propensity to take risks, M. Tsukkerman’s technique “Self-assessment of the propensity to the extremely risky behavior”, H. Eysenck’s “Self-assessment of mental states” to determine personality factors, and R.V. Ovcharova’s questionnaire. 60 adolescents at the age of 15-16 years participated in the study. Data analysis showed the high proneness of adolescents to risky behavior with the dominance of the desire of seeking sensations. The author defined the following personal factors of risky behavior of adolescents: anxiety, aggressiveness, rigidity, frustration, and inadequate self-esteem. The statistical analysis confirmed the correlation relationship between risk appetite and low levels of anxiety, rigidity, frustration, as well as high aggressiveness and self-esteem.