Do children's intentions to risk take relate to actual risk taking?

OBJECTIVES Concerns about safety and rigorous ethic standards can make it very difficult to study children's risk taking. The goal of this study was to determine how closely intentions to risk take relate to actual risk taking among boys and girls 6-11 years of age. METHODS Children initially completed an "intentions to risk take" task. Following administration of several questionnaires they later participated in an actual risk taking task. RESULTS At all ages, for both boys and girls, intentions to risk take was highly positively correlated with actual risk taking. When discrepancies occurred these were usually of minimal magnitude. CONCLUSIONS Tasks that tap children's intentions to risk take can serve as proxy indicators of children's actual risk taking.