Investigation of sensation seeking in adolescents in the context of various variables

The aim of this study is to investigate the search for sensation seeking levels according to the academic self-handicapping, depression, religious belief and perceived social support in terms of various demographic variables (gender, being gifted, mother working status, class level, mother education level, father education level, number of siblings). The study group consisted of 394 students who were educated in two high schools and one BILSEM in the province of Sakarya and one middle school in the province of Kocaeli in 2018-2019 academic year. 207 (52.5%) of the participants were female and 187 (47.5%) were male. 105 (26.6%) of the participants were from the gifted individuals who went to BILSEM and 289 (73.4%) were from normal individuals. There are 63 (16%) participants in the fifth grade, 40 (10.2%) participants in sixth grade, 51 (12.9%) participants in 7th grade, 42 (10.7%) participants in 8th grade, 33 (8,4%) participants in 9th grade, 49 (12,4%) participants in 10th grade, 44 (11,2%) participants in 11th grade and 72 (18,3%) participants in 12th grade. In the study, Personal Information Form was used to determine the gender of person, level of class, mother's education status, father's education status, mother working status and number of siblings. In the study, levels of sensation seeking data gathered using the Short Sensation Seeking Scale for Adolescents developed by Stephenson, Hoyle, Palmgreen and Slater (2003) adapted to Turkish by Çelik (2015); levels of academic self-handicapping data gathered using the Academic Self-Handicapping Scale developed by Urdan and Midgley (2001) adapted to Turkish by Anlı, Taş, Güneş, Yazgı and Sevinç (2018), levels of depression data gathered using the Kutcher Adolescent Depression Scale developed by Brooks, Krulewicz ve Kutcher (2003) and LeBlanc, Almudevar, Brooks and Kutcher (2002) and adapted to Turkish by Balci-Celik and Uysal-Atabay (2019), levels of religious belief data gathered using the Religious Belief Scale for Adolescents developed by Horozcu and Demir (2018) and levels of perceived social support data gathered using the Perceived Social Support Scale developed by Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet and Farley (1988), adapted to Turkish by Eker and Arkar (1995) and revised by Eker, Arkar and Yaldız (2001). Data were analyzed using correlation analysis, regression analysis, t-test and one-way variance analysis of variance. According to the analysis of the levels of sensation seeking for adolescents; it was concluded that sensation seeking had a significant positive relationship with academic self-handicapping and depression, and that depression predicted the sensation seeking, and there was no significant relationship between the sensation seeking and religious belief and perceived social support. In addition, it was determined that the levels of sensation seeking differed according to the grade level and number of siblings, and did not differ according to the gender, being gifted, mother working status, mother education status and father education status. Keywords: Adolescence, giftedness, sensation seeking, academic self-handicapping, depression, religious belief, perceived social support.