Understanding risk compensation in children: Experience with the activity and level of sensation seeking play a role

The aims of this study were to determine if children 7–12 years show risk compensation when engaging in ecologically valid recreational sports tasks, and to explore how experience with the activity and extent of sensation seeking influence this. Children were positioned up on a platform, on a bike or wearing rollerblades, and they were presented varying heights and inclines from which they selected the greatest one they go down when wearing and not wearing safety gear appropriate to the activity; when making their ratings they anticipated actually doing the task. Results revealed that children engaged in significantly more risk taking when wearing safety gear, thereby demonstrating risk compensation, and this was significantly greater for the activity with which they had greater experience. However, children high in sensation seeking demonstrated significantly more risk compensation in both the high and low experience activities, although the injury risk appraisals that predicted risk compensation varied with experience level. Implications for the design of injury prevention programs and directions for future research are discussed.