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Risky behaviours among young people are relatively frequent, with several motives and attitudes lying behind. Our objective was to evaluate the role of risk perception, attractiveness and motives for risk behaviour taking among university students in Lebanon. A cross-sectional study was carried out using a proportionate cluster sample of Lebanese students in public and private universities. Items of risk intake and perception scale, attractiveness of risky behaviours, and motives for risky behaviours were assessed, in addition to cigarette and waterpipe smoking and dependence, alcohol problematic consumption and mental distress scale. After verifying the validity of scales and reliability in the university students' population, we found that risk perception was associated with lower risk intake, while risk attractiveness was a driver for it. Moreover, motives differed in their driving of risky behaviour, a particular point was that women indicated more goal achievement objectives, the latter concept was associated with lower risk taking. University students in Lebanon, women in particular, demonstrated wiser behaviour and may benefit from heath education programme to increase their awareness about risky behaviours. Identifying other personal, environmental, social and psychological predictors may also be important to improve effectiveness of these programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]