Predicting risky sexual behaviors of female high school students based on executive functions and emotion regulation

The present study was conducted to predict risky sexual behaviors of female high school students based on executive functions and emotion regulation. The present research method was descriptive-correlational. The statistical population included all female secondary school students of Babol City in the academic year of 2022-2023, from which 200 people were selected as a sample using available and non-random sampling methods. Data were collected using Zarei et al.'s Risky Sexual Behavior Questionnaire (RSBQ, 2009), Gioia et al.'s Behavioral Rating List Of Executive Functions (BRIEF, 2000), and Garnefski & Kraaij's Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ, 2006). Multiple regression analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings of the research showed that executive functions and emotion regulation were able to predict sexual risky behaviors (p<0.05) and in total explain 49% of the variance of sexual risky behaviors. Therefore, it can be concluded that executive functions and emotion regulation play a significant role in predicting risky sexual behaviors and the need to pay attention to these factors seems necessary to reduce risky sexual behaviors in students.