Poster #219 - Caregiver Presence Increases Risk Taking During Balance Beam Performance in Children but not Adolescents

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

Adolescents have been shown to exhibit less risky behavior in the context of caregiver availability. For example, when caregivers are in the room, activity in reward-sensitive areas of the brain thought to underlie increased risk taking is reduced in adolescents during risky decision making (e.g., whether to break or speed up when approaching a yellow stoplight; Telzer, Ichien & Qu, 2015; Moriera & Telzer, 2018). In contrast, existing theories predict greater risk taking in children when a social resource, such as a caregiver, is present (Coan & Sbarra, 2015). We tested the hypothesis that caregiver availability will affect risk-taking behavior depending on age, with children taking greater risks compared to adolescents during caregiver presence.

In a field study of competitive gymnasts, we manipulated caregiver presence during what is considered the most risky gymnastics event: the balance beam. Participants were 17 female gymnasts 7 to 12 years old, and their primary caregivers. Gymnasts were divided into two groups based on age: children under 11 years (N = 10) and adolescents 11 years and up (N = 7). Over the course of 8 practices taking place throughout the summer season, gymnasts were filmed while practicing on the balance beam. For half of the practices, caregivers were asked to be present and attentive to their child as they practiced. For the other half, caregivers were asked to be entirely absent from the gym. Videos were coded for 14 different balance beam move attempts ranked by difficulty level, with more difficult moves entailing more risk. The most difficult move attempted by each gymnast within each practice was identified and the number of attempts at this move were coded.

A repeated-measures ANOVA with context (caregiver presence or caregiver absence) as a within-subjects variable and age group (child or adolescent) as a between-subjects variable showed no main effect of context, but did reveal a context by age interaction, F(1, 15) = 9.13, p = .009. Children made significantly more difficult attempts, t(9) = 2.32, p = .046, when their caregiver was present and watching (M = 52.3, SE = 3.6) compared to when their caregiver was absent (M = 37.8, SE = 3.9). In contrast, adolescents made less difficult attempts in caregiver presence (M = 38.4, SE = 4.3) compared to caregiver absence (M = 53.1, SE = 4.8), but this difference was not statistically significant, t(6) = -2.01, p = .091 (see Figure 1).

Our hypothesis was confirmed: children increased their risk taking behavior in caregiver presence. By observing and quantifying real-world risk taking behavior and manipulating the social context in which it occurs, we found that caregiver presence increases the frequency of risky move attempts on the balance beam in children. Further, while not statistically significant but similar to previous research, caregiver presence nominally decreased risky move attempts in adolescents. These results are broadly consistent with theories of the social regulation of emotion, predicting greater risk taking (Coan & Sbarra, 2015) in children when a social resource such as the caregiver is present.

Authors

• Cat Thrasher, University of Virginia
  Presenting Author

• Demitra Chavez, University of Virginia
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tobias Grossmann, University of Virginia
  Non-Presenting Author