Evaluating efficacy of a social responsibility- based educational program on at risk youth's tendency toward high- risk behaviors

Social responsibility helps individuals define themselves and their roles as part of society and act responsible and active as a member of this community. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of social responsibility- based educational program on the tendency toward high-risk behaviors at risk adolescents.

The research method was Pre-test – post-test quasi-experimental method with control group. The statistical population of the study was adolescents at risk in Tehran. The sample was students of a school in the 17th district of Tehran (consisted of 39 students) that was selected as available sample. Sample was randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The educational program was administered to the experimental group in 10 sessions. The instrument used in this study was Iranian Adolescents Risk-taking Scale. Data were analyzed by SPSS and by using One-Way Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA).

The results of the study showed that the F value obtained in the covariance analysis test is 5.52 and its significance level is less than 0.05; therefore, social responsibility- based educational program has a significant effect on the tendency towards risky behaviors in adolescents and decreases tendency to high risk behaviors. Promoting social responsibility can help adolescents avoid engaging in high-risk behaviors.