Reliability and validity of a new instrument to measure tolerance of everyday risk for children.
BACKGROUND
A modicum of everyday risk provides opportunities for children to extend the limits of their competence. However, increasingly negative perceptions of risk have led to risk-averse behaviours in adults, including severely restricting children's play. The degree to which risk in play is tolerated by adults impacts on the lives and experiences of children. However, no measure of adult tolerance to everyday risk exists. The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable instrument examining adults' tolerances of risk during children's play.


METHODS
A 31-item survey of risk tolerance was developed based on a Norwegian model of risky play; 100 parents and teachers of children aged 3 to 13 years completed the instrument. Data were subjected to Rasch analysis. Psychometric properties of the data were examined.


RESULTS
Iterative analyses produced an instrument with goodness of fit statistics in the acceptable range, a logical item hierarchy, person separation index >2 and reliability index of 0.87. There was a strong positive relationship between participants' self-perceived risk tolerance and scores on the instrument, and between the age of the child and scores on the instrument.


CONCLUSIONS
The Tolerance of Risk in Play Scale (TRiPS) yields valid and reliable data for measuring the success of interventions to change adults' everyday risk beliefs, and for exploring the impact of adults' risk tolerance on children's play and development.
['Hill|A|A|', 'Bundy|A C|AC|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D001288:Attention D002648:Child D002657:Child Development D002675:Child, Preschool D003071:Cognition D005260:Female D015438:Health Behavior D006801:Humans D007858:Learning D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D010200:Panic D010290:Parents D010988:Play and Playthings D011594:Psychometrics D011597:Psychomotor Performance D015203:Reproducibility of Results D018570:Risk Assessment D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires D035502:Trust
risk tolerance risky play child development