Examining the Role of Risk Compensation in Extreme Sports.

EXTREME sports; MOUNTAIN biking; IMPULSIVE personality; SPORTS participation; MOUNTAIN bikes; RISK-taking behavior; SENSATION seeking; CROSS-sectional method; SPORTS; BEHAVIOR; STUDENTS

This study explored the relations between sensation seeking, impulsivity, risk compensation, and extreme-sports injury to better understand contributing factors to risk taking in extreme sports and subsequent adverse outcomes. Data included cross-sectional survey responses from 1,107 college students (Mage = 19.47, SD = 2.14). Poisson, logistic, and negative binomial regressions were used to investigate the relations of interest. Results indicate that sensation seeking and impulsivity are significantly associated with both risk compensation and extreme-sports injury. Risk compensation is significantly and positively associated with extreme-sports injury in mountain biking and snowboarding. Risk compensation did not significantly moderate the relation between the personality constructs of interest and extreme-sports injury. These results show that the role of risk compensation in extreme-sports injury is highly sport-specific. These results highlight the importance of considering both personality and risk compensation in prevention and intervention efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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