The Risk-averse Generation: What Restrictions to Children's Risk-taking May Mean for their Development

Children's outdoor risky play that involves challenging and thrilling experiences can support them in adopting safety and threat navigation strategies and provide them with opportunities to be confident and independent. Problematically, over the past six decades there have been increasing restrictions placed on children's outdoor risky play. These restrictions are shaped, in part, by sensationalized media disseminations of "stranger danger" and child injury experiences, pressure on parents to keep their children away from potential threats to their safety and litigation concerns. To this end, child health researchers address pressing questions: How are these restrictions influencing children's current and future development? In this presentation, Michelle will discuss the shifts and trends in risk-aversion in Western societies, and discuss what is currently be done in research contexts to address the imbalance of children's access to unstructured, unsupervised and natural outdoor play.

Dr. Michelle Bauer is a postdoctoral fellow in the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia, where she works with the BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit to understand children's perspectives on their neighborhood injuries and play experiences. In her work, she examines the intersections of mobile technology use, independent mobility, parenting, and the shifts and trends of child and youth development within risk societies. She is the instructor for health science research courses and lectures in social determinants of health.