Casual Model of Factors Affecting Behavioral Risk Reduction of Lower-secondary School Students Under the Secondary School Educational Service Area Office 18

Abstract

               The objectives of this research were 1) to study the causal factors affecting risk behaviors of junior high school students studying in schools under the Secondary Educational Service Area Office 18, and 2) to develop and verify the Linear Structural Relationship Model of the causal factors affecting the risk behaviors of junior high school students studying in schools under the Secondary Educational Service Area Office 18. The total number of sample groups was 958 junior high school students studying in schools under the Secondary Educational Service Area Office 18. The variables which were the factors examined in this study consisted of family relationships, influence of media, living environment in the community, types of society and living norms, student personal experience, groups of friends, and characteristics of risk behaviors of the students. To explain the phenomenon of the predicted causal factors which could reduce the risk behaviors of the lower secondary school students, the design of Qualitative research was employed in the first part of this research design. In this part, some students were asked to attend an in-depth interview session with the researcher. Later on, the design of a quantitative data analysis was conducted and the obtained data was analyzed by the Amos program to find out the structural validity of the causal relationship model.

            The finding in this study shows that the causal relationship model aiming at reducing the risk behaviors of the lower secondary school students was consistent with the empirical data as follows: () = 533.288, p = .00,  df = 241, / df = 2.21, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = .97, Goodness of Fit Index (GFI) = .95, Adjust Goodness of Fit Index (AGFI) = .94, Root Mean Squares Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = .03. The testified variables in the model were found accounting for 83 percent of the variance of the reduction of the risk behaviors of the lower secondary school students.