Gillian Ramsay, Joe Baker

During adolescence we engage in more risk-taking behaviors than any other life stage, but what constitutes risky behavior may differ from person to person, making risk-taking feel and look different between individuals. That said, injury prevalence is frequently cited as an indicator of risk-taking behavior. Therefore, looking at sports that can be objectively defined as risky from an injury perspective (e.g. freestyle skiing) allows us to investigate any trends between adolescents in risky versus less risky sports (e.g. rowing). Apart from injury risk, there has been little exploration of development of athletes in risky sports (e.g., psychological variables such as personality). The aim of this study is to investigate differences in psychological variables like self-regulation, self-efficacy, and conscientiousness, between adolescents competing at the provincial level in higher and lower risk sports. Understanding how athletes thrive in training within these high-consequence environments that are necessary for their sport development is key in creating optimal conditions for improvement. Therefore, by looking at psychological characteristics like personality, self-regulation, and self-efficacy we hope to develop a psychological profile of adolescents in riskier sports to ensure the provision of important developmental resources in this unique category of sports.