Changes in parents' perceived injury risk after a medically-attended injury to their child

Exploring parental risk perception regarding childhood unintentional home injuries: A cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION

While previous studies on childhood injury focused mainly on the relationship between parents' preventive behavior and its determinants, knowledge about parental risk perception that can help to develop, implement, and evaluate successful interventions to prevent childhood unintentional home injuries is still limited. The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of parental risk perception regarding unintentional home injuries of children under six years of age.

METHOD

A convenience sample of 469 parents, residing in Germany, completed a web-based questionnaire assessing factors potentially associated with parental risk perception on the child, parental, and environmental level. Descriptive statistics, p for trend, and Spearman's Rho correlation coefficients were calculated.

RESULTS

Key factors influencing parental risk perception included children's sex, age, migrant status, emotionality, and injury risk as well as parents' parenting style and external locus of control. While parental risk perception was positively associated with children's injury risk, the analyses showed no associations between parental risk perception and parents' preventive behavior.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings add to a better understanding of parental risk perception, provide practical implications for injury prevention, and indicate that the relationship between parental risk perception and parents' preventive behavior is based on a complex mechanism which is possibly moderated by parents' locus of control.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

The identified key factors help to assess parental risk perception more accurately. Therefore, they should be considered in the development of tailored interventions to prevent unintentional home injuries of children, for instance, by targeting specific groups of parental risk perception.

Is parental propensity to risk associated with their child's medically-attended injuries? A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Societal expectations about safety influence parents' risk perceptions and children's risky play opportunities. This study examined parents' propensity to take risks themselves and their propensity to accept risks for their child, sex-related differences in parents' propensity to accept risks for their child, and the association between parents' propensity to accept risks for their child and that child's medically-attended injury history.

METHODS

A total of 467 parents attending a pediatric hospital with their 6-12-year-old child completed a questionnaire about their risk propensity for themselves and for their child and reported their child's injury history.

RESULTS

Parents' risk propensity for themselves was significantly higher than for their child, and fathers' risk propensity for themselves was higher than mothers'. Linear regressions showed that fathers reported significantly more propensity to accept risks for their child than mothers, but parents did not differentiate between their sons and daughters. A binary logistic regression showed that parents' propensity to accept risks for their child was a significant predictor of pediatric medically-attended injury.

CONCLUSIONS

Parents were more comfortable in taking risks for themselves than for their child. While fathers were more comfortable with their children engaging in risks than mothers, child's sex was not related to parents' propensity to accept risks for their child. Pediatric injury was predicted by parents' propensity to accept risks for their child. Further research investigating injury type and severity related parent risk propensity is needed to determine how parents' attitudes toward risk might relate to severe injury.

Effects of Fall Training Program on Automatization of Safe Motor Responses During Backwards Falls in School-Age Children

A significant number of children suffer injuries from falls. The current measures of prevention and education regarding falls are not sufficient, as falling is still the main cause of injury at this age. This study aimed to evaluate the risk of injury during a backward fall and assess the effect of the Safe Fall training program on this risk. 457 primary school children between the ages of 6 and 12 (mean age of 9) were enrolled in a 6-week randomized intervention. The program was carried out during physical education classes and consisted of an intervention group that followed the Safe Fall training program and a control group that was given equilibrium exercises. The risk of injury was assessed before and after the implementation using the Information Scale on Safe Ways of Falling observation scale, evaluating the responses of five different body parts (head, hip, knees, upper limbs and back). Students’ natural response to falls was associated with a high risk of injury in more than 90% of the cases. The implementation of the Safe Fall program resulted in a considerable decrease in this risk, with percentages lowered to levels between 8.7% and 18.3%.