Creative Climate as a Preventive Factor for Youths’ Risk Behaviours

The main area of the presented study is a problem of the influence of perceived school climate on risk behaviours among adolescents. The sample consisted of 425 Ss, aged 13-19. The participants were asked to evaluate the level of intensity (on Likert type scale) of such behaviours as: interpersonal aggression, pilfering, drug dealing, etc. Due to high reliability and intercorrelations among those variables, one index called “risk behaviour index (RBI)” was constructed and used in the analyses. School climate was assessed using the Creative Climate Questionnaire (KCCQ) developed by Karwowski (2003, 2003a, in press) – a 44-item questionnaire describing the climate of the school and class in three areas: (1) freedom, (2) trust and (3) uncertainty. Hierarchical regression analyses showed a significant influence of climate factors on risk behaviours – perceived freedom in the school and the classroom negatively influenced risk behaviours while uncertainty was close to the significant, positive predictor of risk behaviours. The results are discussed in terms of possible modifications of school climate as a way to decrease risk behaviours.