Risk-taking Behaviour and Aspects on Adolescents' Participation in High-risk Sports

The age of adolescence represents an enhanced reward sensitivity which is often linked to increased risk-taking behaviour. Peers enhance risk-taking behaviour which is shown through delinquency and substance use. Whereas most research on adolescent risk-taking has been directed towards negative risk-taking, this narrative review tries to highlight adventure and high-risk sport participation as a prosocial form of risk-taking and its potential influence on adolescents' behaviour. Adventure/high-risk sports such as mountainbiking, freeride ski and snowboarding and climbing have grown exponentially in the last years with a high popularity among adolescents. Besides the inherent risk of severe injury in case of a mismanaged accident, which should be minimized by preventive steps such as educative risk-management and protective gear, those sports bear the potential for multiple psychological benefits such as enhanced mood, autonomy, resilience and self-efficacy. Adventure/high-risk sports seem to have the possibility to satisfy the need for rewards, prestige and risk-taking in a socially accepted way. Few research projects have already successfully integrated adventure sport interventions in clinical settings in mental health treatment. The idea of testing adventure/high-risk sport interventions as an addition to the treatment in child and adolescent psychiatry and psychotherapy could be promising and an impulse for future research projects.