Exploring the Link Between Adolescent Risk Attitudes and Fear of Failure: A Preliminary Study

Authors

  • Soumen Chakraborty

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53469/jrve.2025.7(01).01

Keywords:

decision making, risk attitudes, fear of failure, risky choices, risk behavior, atychiphobia, risky decisions, risk averse, risk propense, risk

Abstract

The study assesses the relation between individual risk attitudes and fear of failure. We measured risk attitudes using the risk attitude scale (Weber and Betz, 2002) and fear of failure using the Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory (Conroy et al., 2002).51 students of ages 14 - 18 years took part in the survey where they completed these two questionnaires with slight modifications. The individual scores were averaged and Cronbach's alpha test was employed to test internal reliability. Pearson's correlation and linear regression analysis was done keeping fear of failure as the independent variable. The questionnaires had good internal reliability. The correlation and regression analysis both indicated a moderate positive relation but the p - values were higher than the standard 0.05 so the relation was not considered statistically significant. The findings motivate us to conduct further research on the topic with a larger sample size to explore the relation more deeply which is imperative to human decision making.

References

Abdi Zarrin, S., Gracia, E. and Paula Paixão, M. (2020). Prediction of Academic Procrastination by Fear of Failure and Self - Regulation. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 20 (3), pp.34–43. doi: https: //doi. org/10.12738/jestp.2020.3.003.

Atkinson, J. W. (1957) 'Motivational determinants of risk - taking behavior., ' Psychological Review, 64 (6, Pt.1), pp.359–372. https: //doi. org/10.1037/h0043445.

Conroy, D. E. (2001) ‘Progress in the development of a multidimensional measure of fear of failure: The Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory (PFAI) ', Anxiety, Stress & Coping, 14 (4), pp.431–452. doi: 10.1080/10615800108248365.

Conroy, D. E., Willow, J. P. and Metzler, J. N. (2002) ‘Multidimensional Fear of Failure Measurement: The performance failure appraisal inventory', Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 14 (2), pp.76–90. doi: 10.1080/10413200252907752.

Conroy, D. E. and Metzler, J. N. (2003) ‘Temporal stability of performance failure appraisal inventory items', Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Science, 7 (4), pp.243–261. doi: 10.1207/s15327841mpee0704_3.

Conroy, D. E., Metzler, J. N. and Hofer, S. M. (2003) ‘Factorial invariance and latent mean stability of performance failure appraisals', Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 10 (3), pp.401–422. doi: 10.1207/s15328007sem1003_4.

Correia, M. E. and Rosado, A. (2018) ‘Fear of failure and anxiety in Sport', Análise Psicológica, 36 (1), pp.75–86. doi: 10.14417/ap.1193.

Deck, C., Lee, J. and Reyes, J. (2013) 'Investing versus gambling: experimental evidence of multi - domain risk attitudes, ' Applied Economics Letters, 21 (1), pp.19–23. https: //doi. org/10.1080/13504851.2013.835470.

Deveci, I. and Aydin, F. (n. d.). Relationship between students' tendencies toward academic risk - taking and their attitudes to science. Issues in Educational Research, [online] 28 (3), pp.560–577. doi: https: //doi. org/10.3316/informit.863742773214920.

Dohmen, T. et al. (2005) ‘Individual risk attitudes: New evidence from a large, representative, experimentally - validated survey', SSRN Electronic Journal [Preprint]. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.807408.

Henschel, C. and Iffland, B. (2021) ‘Measuring fear of failure', Psychological Test Adaptation and Development, 2 (1), pp.136–147. doi: 10.1027/2698 - 1866/a000018.

Huck, S. W. (2014) Reading statistics and Research. Boston: Pearson Education.

Jaeger, D. A. et al. (2010) ‘Direct evidence on risk attitudes and migration', Review of Economics and Statistics, 92 (3), pp.684–689. doi: 10.1162/rest_a_00020.

Johnson, J., Wilke, A. and Weber, E. U. (2004) 'Beyond a trait view of risk taking: a Domain - Specific scale measuring risk perceptions, expected benefits, and Perceived - Risk attitudes in German - Speaking populations, ' Social Science Research Network [Preprint]. https: //autopapers. ssrn. com/sol3/papers. cfm?abstract_id=1301128.

Junuthula, S. (2022) ‘Effect of fear of failure on Teen Decision making', Advances in Applied Sociology, 12 (09), pp.439–469. doi: 10.4236/aasoci.2022.129035.

Kernan, A. and Sullins, J. (2022) The Relationship between Adolescent Risk - Taking Behavior and Guilt versus Shame Proneness, Modern Psychological Studies, p. Article 12. https: //scholar. utc. edu/mps/vol28/iss1/12.

McGregor, H. A. and Elliot, A. J. (2005) ‘The shame of failure: Examining the link between fear of failure and shame', Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31 (2), pp.218–231. doi: 10.1177/0146167204271420.

Murad, Z., Sefton, M. and Starmer, C. (2016) ‘How do risk attitudes affect measured confidence?', Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 52 (1), pp.21–46. doi: 10.1007/s11166 - 016 - 9231 - 1.

Nsiah, H. (2017) Fear of Failure and the Academic Performance of Students from Low - Income Families, International Journal of Education and Social Science. journal - article. Saint Louis University, pp.19–20. https:

//d1wqtxts1xzle7. cloudfront. net/

Rohde, I. M. and Rohde, K. I. (2011) ‘Risk attitudes in a social context', Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 43 (3), pp.205–225. doi: 10.1007/s11166 - 011 - 9127 - z.

Rolf, J. and Birney, R. (1967) THE EFFECTS OF FEAR OF FAILURE ON RISK - TAKING AND PERFORMANCE. https: //www.semanticscholar. org/paper/THE - EFFECTS - OF - FEAR - OF - FAILURE - ON - RISK - TAKING - AND - Rolf - Birney/1988530a6020f8842297535f45c6d29f76283b8c.

Sagar, S. S. and Jowett, S. (2010) 'Validation of a multidimensional measure of fear of failure in a British sample, ' International Journal of Coaching Science, 4 (1), pp.49–63. http: //www.dbpia. co. kr/Journal/ArticleDetail/NODE02489925.

Villanueva, E. and Martins, I. (2022) ‘Overconfidence, fear of failure, risk - taking and entrepreneurial intention: The behavior of undergraduate students', Tec Empresarial, 16 (3), pp.16–33. doi: 10.18845/te. v16i3.6355.

Weber, E. U., Blais, A. and Betz, N. E. (2002) ‘A domain‐ specific risk‐attitude scale: Measuring risk perceptions and risk behaviors', Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 15 (4), pp.263–290. doi: 10.1002/bdm.414.

Weber, E. U. (2009) ‘Risk attitude and preference', WIREs Cognitive Science, 1 (1), pp.79–88. doi: 10.1002/wcs.5.

Downloads

Published

2025-01-31

How to Cite

Chakraborty, S. (2025). Exploring the Link Between Adolescent Risk Attitudes and Fear of Failure: A Preliminary Study. Journal of Research in Vocational Education, 7(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.53469/jrve.2025.7(01).01

Issue

Section

Articles