The developmental importance of risky play: A cross-national virtual reality study.

Abstract: Research suggests the importance of risky play experiences for healthy child development, including developing risk management skills. Virtual reality (VR) technology allow for novel research investigating this relationship. Children’s access to risky play is shaped by their socio-cultural context. This study examined cross-cultural differences in children’s risk willingness and tested whether risk willingness in play relates to risk management in non-play contexts. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 424 children (ages 7–11) from Norway and Canada. Participants completed two immersive VR tasks: (1) a playground scenario, assessing risk willingness (speed, exploration of elevated structures, time in risk zones) and failure (falls); and (2) a pedestrian street crossing task, assessing risk management (assessment time, dangerous crossings, collisions). Regression models controlled for age and sex. Norwegian children demonstrated significantly higher risk willingness than Canadian children (B = −0.54, p < 0.001). Greater risk willingness predicted higher odds of falling in the playground task (OR = 1.78, p < 0.001). However, risk willingness was also associated with more efficient risk assessment in traffic (B = −11.4, p = 0.002), without increasing dangerous crossings. Children who engage more willingly with physical risks in play may develop greater efficiency in managing real-world risks without added danger. These findings challenge assumptions that risk-taking is inherently hazardous, highlight the developmental importance of risky play, and emphasize the need to design for affordances for manageable risks in children’s everyday environments.

See the article here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2026.103062

Brussoni, M., Sandseter, E. B. H., Sando, O. J., Kleppe, R., Zeni, M., & Bundy, A. (2026). The developmental importance of risky play: A cross-national virtual reality study. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 112, 103062. 

In the ViRMa project, we have been working on developing a theoretical approach in which we can try to understand how children manage risks in their daily lives (including in play). The paper describing this theoretical approach is published in International Journal of Play.

You can find it open access here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21594937.2024.2425539

Here are some links to other recently published ViRMa articles that might be of interest, too:

Title: Children’s risk assessment in street crossing using virtual reality: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2023.10.002

Title: Risk willingness in play: exploring children’s behaviour in a virtual reality playground: https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2024.2437769

Title: Age, sex, sensation-seeking, and road-crossing: How does risk context impact children’s street-crossing? https://doi.org/10.1080/15389588.2024.2358103

Title: Distinct clusters of movement entropy in children’s exploration of a virtual reality balance beam: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1227469

Title: Individual differences in children’s movement variability in a virtual reality playground task: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.humov.2023.103171

Title: Assessment of psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the sensation seeking scale for children in a Norwegian sample: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1341609

Title: Psychometric Properties of the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Movement Skill Competence for Young Norwegian Children: https://doi.org/10.1177/00315125241245175

Have a good day! Ellen

If you want to know more about the exciting ViRMa project, this protocol paper describes the aims and methods. The paper is open-access.

Link to PAPER

Abstract:

Background: Research indicates that risky play benefits children’s risk assessment and risk management skills and offers several positive health effects such as resilience, social skills, physical activity, well-being, and involvement. There are also indications that the lack of risky play and autonomy increases the likelihood of anxiety. Despite its well-documented importance, and the willingness of children to engage in risky play, this type of play is increasingly restricted. Assessing long-term effects of risky play has been problematic because of ethical issues with conducting studies designed to allow or encourage children to take physical risks with the potential of injury.

Objective: The Virtual Risk Management project aims to examine children’s development of risk management skills through risky play. To accomplish this, the project aims to use and validate newly developed and ethically appropriate data collection tools such as virtual reality, eye tracking, and motion capturing, and to provide insight into how children assess and handle risk situations and how children’s past risky play experiences are associated with their risk management.

Methods: We will recruit 500 children aged 7-10 years and their parents from primary schools in Norway. Children’s risk management will be measured through data concerning their risk assessment, risk willingness, and risk handling when completing a number of tasks in 3 categories of virtual reality scenarios: street crossing, river crossing, and playing on playground equipment. The children will move around physically in a large space while conducting the tasks and wear 17 motion-capturing sensors that will measure their movements to analyze motor skills. We will also collect data on children’s perceived motor competence and their sensation-seeking personality. To obtain data on children’s risk experiences, parents will complete questionnaires on their parental style and risk tolerance, as well as information about the child’s practical risk experience.

Results: Four schools have been recruited to participate in data collection. The recruitment of children and parents for this study started in December 2022, and as of April 2023, a total of 433 parents have consented for their children to participate.

Conclusions: The Virtual Risk Management project will increase our understanding of how children’s characteristics, upbringing, and previous experiences influence their learning and ability to handle challenges. Through development and use of cutting-edge technology and previously developed measures to describe aspects of the children’s past experiences, this project addresses crucial topics related to children’s health and development. Such knowledge may guide pedagogical questions and the development of educational, injury prevention, and other health-related interventions, and reveal essential areas for focus in future studies. It may also impact how risk is addressed in crucial societal institutions such as the family, early childhood education, and schools.

Ellen 😀

New article published with an evolutionary approach on risky play.

Abstract: The focus of this theoretical paper is to explore three biopsychosocial levels of children’s risky play: (1) mental health and emotion regulation, (2) social functioning and challenging norms, and (3) physical health and development. As such, in this paper, we expand Sandseter’s and Kennair’s focus in their original article in 2011 on the evolved function of risky play as an anti-phobic mechanism, and consider other types of risk than physical risks and other types of play, including other types of emotional regulation than anxiety reduction. Motivated by the thrilling emotions involved in risky play, one matures in competency and masters new and more complex psychosocial settings. Play with emotional, social, and physical risk may have evolved to increase the child’s psychosocial competency here-and-now, but also train them for future adult contexts. We recommend that future research consider how risky play in all contexts may have a similar function.

You find de the article open access here: Sandseter, E. B. H., Kleppe, R., & Ottesen Kennair, L. E. (2023, 2023/01/02). Risky play in children’s emotion regulation, social functioning, and physical health: an evolutionary approach. International Journal of Play, 12(1), 127-139. https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2022.2152531

Ellen 🙂

The book that I wrote about in December 2021, Risky play. An ethical challenge, is now edited and published in an English version at Palgrave, and available as online open access at Springer: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-25552-6

Enjoy!

Ellen

Another article from the EnCompetence project!

Abstract: Early childhood education and care (ECEC) institutions play an important role in many young children’s lives. Child-oriented research about the role of the physical ECEC environment in children’s play is scarce. The present study aims to develop knowledge about what children consider crucial elements in the physical ECEC environment. Seventy-one children (3–6 years old) were interviewed to gain insight into their perspectives on the physical ECEC environment. This study indicates that children desire a physical ECEC environment with various affordances supporting different play possibilities and that the social context influences how children may interact with the physical environment. The design of the physical ECEC environment is crucial to children’s everyday play experiences while in care.

https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/12/2/88

A new open access article available. I am so grateful that Steffen and Alexander invited me into this collaboration!

Abstract: Research indicates that risky play has positive effects on children’s development, learning and health, and ability to assess and manage risk, but there is a lack of knowledge on how toddlers engage in risky play. This study aims to investigate how toddlers assess and manage risk in free exploration in a varied natural environment and was conducted within an explorative qualitative approach. Observations were collected through head-mounted GoPro cameras while seven toddlers freely explored a natural environment. The results show that toddlers are able to assess and manage risks in challenging natural environments. They develop their own risk management skills and assess risks directly and indirectly. The results also show that practitioners sometimes perform risk assessment/management on behalf of the child and thus override the child’s own actions. The findings suggest implications for an early childhood education and care (ECEC) practice where children even as young as 17–25 months should be allowed to explore challenging environments and learn how to assess and manage risks

https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/12/5/361

I am so happy to announce that Øyvind Kvalnes and I have just published a small and very pretty book named Risikofylt lek. En etisk utfordring (Risky play. An ethical challenge). In the book we combine research about risky play and theories about ethical navigation to shed light on how to handle the dilemma adults usually face when children seek risk in their play and activities. The book is in Norwegian, but hopefully it will be published in more languages in the future 🙂 And, it is beautifully illustrated by Fredrik Skavlan!

New article on the data from the ECEC Well-Being Monitor!

Abstract: There are limited studies involving preschool children and phenomena such as harassment, bullying, exclusion and rejection. This study explores the relations between 4- to 6-year-old children’s experiences of being frequently harassed in Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) institutions, their overall feeling of subjective well-being and their social relationship experiences with staff and peers. The study also investigates whether there are significant differences between frequently harassed children’s experiences of well-being and social relations compared to other children’s experiences. The data reported in this study are collected through the Norwegian ECEC Well-being Monitor, an online, free of charge, electronic questionnaire developed for ECEC institutions. A total of 3598 children are included in the study. The main findings show that, for a majority of indicators, children who are frequently harassed have significantly different experiences of subjective well-being and social relations with peers and staff, mostly more negative, than other children.

Fll text article can be found here: Seland, M., Moe, B., & Sandseter, E. B. H. (2021). Harassment in ECEC institutions: 4- to 6-year-old children’s experiences. Early Years, 1-16. doi:10.1080/09575146.2021.1958198

Ellen

My PhD-student, Lise Porsanger, and I have published a paper on Teachers’ perceptions of risk and safety management in the school subject physical education.

Abstract: Bodily movement is a central component in students’ educational experiences in school-based physical education (PE) programs. PE unavoidably involves physical risk. In some respects, the risk of play, sports and adventure is portrayed as necessary and healthy for children’s development. However, concerns about students’ safety and teachers’ liability might generate risk aversion among teachers. This article explores teachers’ perceptions of risk and safety management (RSM) in PE. Designed as a mixed methods study, the data include an online survey questionnaire (n = 698) and semi-structured interviews (n = 17) among primary and lower secondary PE teachers in Norway. A majority of the survey respondents report that their students only experience minor injuries in their PE classes. The interview data coincide with these results and indicate that minor injuries are rather common. While the survey results show that teachers mostly perceive RSM to be important in PE, the interview data suggest that the teachers’ perceptions of risk are characterized by uncertainty, which restricts the teachers’ control by means of RSM. Teachers also accept risk for enhancing students’ educative experiences in PE. Consequently, this study contributes to the knowledge of the complexity of risk and teachers’ perceptions of RSM in PE.

Find the full text article here: Porsanger, L., & Sandseter, E. B. H. (2021). Risk and Safety Management in Physical Education: Teachers’ Perceptions. Education Sciences, 11(7), 321. https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/11/7/321

Ellen 🙂