Source: USA TODAY

Risk-taking among the young has always raised red flags, but the risks seem to be getting more risky, psychologists say, with no end in sight.

The Winter X Games had its first death ever this year, and two other athletes suffered severe injuries. The forces that propel these athletes past the warning and danger signs to try the newest tricks are both personal and societal — and starring in the endless stream of videos displaying the latest dares is also a major motivation.

“Society keeps looking for, supporting and being engaged by more challenging goals,” says psychologist Kate Hays of Toronto, Ontario. “Even the development of snowboarding can be seen in that light. After the first jumps were achieved, then people had to try harder jumps to get attention. What you see on YouTube reflects this.”

Caleb Moore, 25, was attempting a backflip on his snowmobile at the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colo., Jan. 25. The 450-pound vehicle rolled over him and he died from injuries on Jan. 31. His family and friends held a memorial service on Thursday. His brother Colten, 23, crashed on the same jump and separated his pelvis.

In X Games’ snowboard competition, Halldor Helgason landed on his head coming off an 80-foot jump, lost consciousness and was taken to the hospital. He walked away with a concussion.

Caleb Moore had won a total of four medals in previous X Games, three bronze and a silver. His silver medal came in 2012 in the Snowmobile Best Trick Competition. He told ESPN before this year’s X Games “I’m totally focused on trying to reach that holy grail of a gold medal.” ESPN, which owns the X Games, has promised a safety review.

These accidents came after last year’s tragedy in Salt Lake City where superpipe skier Sarah Burke, 29, died during a training accident. She was a four-time Winter X Games champion. She crashed on the same halfpipe where the USA’s snowboarder Kevin Pearce fell and suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2009.

“We’re a nation of risk-takers, and that’s a good thing,” says psychologist Frank Farley, who notes that he’s a fan of extreme sports and did commentary for ESPN during the 2001 Summer X Games in Philadelphia. “You want your kids to have thrilling adventures. I call it the fourth R: reading, writing, arithmetic and risk-taking. It’s too important in our culture to not encourage it.”

Plus, the alternatives for Gen X and Gen Y kids who like thrills aren’t positive, he says: They have tendencies toward unsafe sex, drugs and find themselves in trouble with the law.

“You don’t find risks in a sport like baseball,” Farley says, ”So these kinds of kids are attracted to extreme sports instead. It’s not going to end here. It’s going to get riskier. It’s just very unfortunate that someone has died.”

But he finds the videos that become Internet sensations to be positive.

“Some people might say it’s narcissistic, but I don’t,” he says. “I would prefer a nice old-fashioned word like self-expression. These young people don’t consume media in the same way as their parents. They live on the Internet, and these videos bespeak of their willingness to take risks.”

Helping them learn to take risks in a safe way is a parent’s challenge, says psychologist David Zald, an associate professor of psychology and director of undergraduate studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

“I’ll have parents ask, ‘What should I do, my kid is doing this and it’s so unsafe,’ ” says Zald. “I’ll tell them to let the child do the sport but with a safety net. For instance, if they want to rock climb, they can do it with someone belaying them and someone looking out for them from below. They’re roped in that way.

“Many of these kids in these extreme sports are practicing these tricks in safe environments,” he says. “Then they go out and do them without the safety net in competition. The problem for some kids is they lose interest when there’s a safety net.”

Zald’s research at Vanderbilt has focused on the role dopamine plays on behavior. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter responsible for reward-driven behavior, he says. Dopamine is also responsive to cocaine, crack and amphetamines.

“There is a rush that happens to people who are risk- and sensation-seekers,” he says. “It seems people can become addicted. They need that rush. They feel particularly alive. It becomes a rewarding experience even in the face of the risk of the consequences.”

Hays, a psychologist who works with elite athletes, performing artists and executives in Canada, says at some point everyone realizes they’re vulnerable. But with risk-takers, that doesn’t mean their behavior changes.

“You might think they’d sit on the sideline and feel overwhelmed,” she says. “But when fear is addressed thoroughly, the person can come out stronger. Working through the worry and focusing on what you can control instead can be empowering.”

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

This entry was posted
on Saturday, February 9th, 2013 at 6:52 am and is filed under USA TODAY News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.