Despite literature highlighting the relevance of negative and positive emotions to risky behaviors, little research has examined the emotion-dependent context of risky behaviors. This study sought to develop and validate a comprehensive measure of the frequency and emotion-dependent context of distinct clinically relevant risky behaviors (the Risky Behavior Questionnaire [RBQ]), as well as to examine the unique relations of the RBQ Negative and Positive Scales (which assess the general tendency to engage in risky behaviors in the context of negative vs. positive emotions, respectively) to specific risky behaviors. Participants were 176 patients in a residential substance use disorder treatment facility ( M age = 34.18; 65.3% White, 53.4% female). Results provided support for the construct and incremental validity (relative to extant measures of related constructs) of the RBQ Scales, as well as the differential relevance of RBQ Negative and Positive Scales to specific risky behaviors.
Keywords: criminal behavior; deliberate self-harm; negative emotions; positive emotions; risky behaviors; risky sexual behavior; substance use.