Does wearing headgear influence risk compensation in adolescent female lacrosse?

The implementation of a headgear mandate in girls’ lacrosse has encountered concerns that the use of headgear may lead to risk-taking behaviors, thereby causing more aggressive gameplay. This study aims to investigate perceptions of headgear use and the potential effect of headgear on risk compensation.
Adolescent female aged 13–19 years participating on a high school or club girls’ lacrosse team completed a Qualtrics survey consisting of questions about age, years of experience, player position, headgear use, the effect headgear would have on their gameplay and completed the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (BSSS-8).
A total of 315 survey responses were collected. The average age of participants was 17 ± 1.5 years, with 46% possessing 1–3 years of experience. A total of 61.9% of participants reported not wearing headgear. The average Brief Sensation Seeking Scale score across all participants was 2.96 ± 0.86, with 3.14 ± 0.89 in the headgear group and 2.84 ± 0.82 in the non-headgear group, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference between headgear groups (p = 0.002) with a moderate effect size [t(311) = -3.08]. Significant positive correlations were found between headgear use and BSSS score (r = .17, p = .022, 95.00% CI = [.06, .27]), headgear use and age (r = .32, p < .001, 95.00% CI = [.22, .42]), and BSSS scores and age (r = .20, p = .002, 95.00% CI = [.10, .31]).
A relationship between headgear use and BSSS scores was confirmed through multiple statistical approaches, with headgear wearers consistently showing higher risk perception scores than non-headgear wearers. This finding persisted even when controlling for other variables, suggesting that headgear usage may positively influence safety awareness among female lacrosse players.