Family Functioning and Risky Behaviors Among Female Adolescents: Mediating Role of Emotion Dysregulation and Decision-Making Styles

Risk-taking is one of the most serious threats to adolescents' well-being. Risky behaviors can lead to social, economic, and personal problems with long-term negative consequences. The significant role of the family in protecting adolescents against involvement in risky behaviors has been shown in the previous studies. This cross-sectional study aims to examine the mediating effect of decision-making styles and emotion dysregulation on the association between poor family functioning and risky behaviors. Two hundred high school students (M-age= 15.23) were selected through a stratified random sampling method. The proposed model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The result revealed a significant correlation between the overall healthy function of the family and adolescents' risky behaviors. In addition, the rational and spontaneous decision-making styles mediated this association significantly. In contrast to our expectation, the result of this study did not support the mediating role of emotion dysregulation in the relationship between poor family functioning and risk behavior. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of adolescent risk-taking for designing effective and beneficial interventions.