"Balancing" children’s physical risks: relationship between balance and risk propensity in developmental age of an Italian children group

Children are not fully able to associate severity and injury probability with cognitive, emotional, and social factors. This study focused on physical risk-taking by exploring the associations between risk propensity and physical balance during the developmental age. Specifically, sixteen girls aged 58 to 108 months (≈ 5 to 9 years), of whom 43.75% normal-weighted and all were active in rhythmic gymnastics, were subjected to a combination of physical tests (i.e., static and dynamic) and questionnaires to evaluate balance, sensation seeking, and risk propensity, respectively. Our results showed that the better the static balance, the higher the sensation seeking and risk propensity, while age had a negligible effect on these associations. Our study suggested that balance affects propensity towards risky behaviors in children.