Complacency, misdirection, and effective prevention of children's injuries.

Abstract

Injuries are the leading killer of children in the United States, yet most parents, communities, and legislatures remain uncommitted to effective injury prevention. Possible reasons for this complacency are described, and effective methods, likely targets, and useful tactics for prevention are reviewed. The greatest challenges to injury preventionists are to persuade those who remain uninformed concerning the importance of injury prevention, to redirect those efforts currently devoted to ineffective interventions, to continue to evaluate and implement effective preventive interventions, and to search for improved prevention strategies.

Longitudinal study of early childhood injuries and acute illnesses in the offspring of adolescent mothers who were aggressive, withdrawn, or aggressive–withdrawn in childhood.

“…Sons of women in the aggressive group and both sons and daughters of women in the aggressive-withdrawn group had elevated and distinctive profiles in respect to specific emergency diagnostic and treatment variables compared with children of women in the nondeviant group.Injuries are the leading cause of death and a major cause of disability in childhood (Fingerhut & Kleinman, 1989;Rodriguez, 1990). Current conceptual approaches to the prediction and prevention of childhood injury focus on the environment in which injury occurs, including parental characteristics and behavior, as well as the behavior and other characteristics of the child such as age and gender (Peterson, Ewigman, & Kivlahan, 1993;Peterson & Roberts, 1992;Rivara & Mueller, 1987;Spielberger & Frank, 1992). Although researchers know a considerable amount about maternal characteristics that predict childhood injury, to our knowledge mothers' social behavior has not been studied in this context.…”

Refugee settlement workers’ perspectives on home safety issues for people from refugee backgrounds

“…Something that the participants in this study were particularly concerned with was the increased safety risk posed by the presence of children. Other authors have also noted that children are at greater risk of injury than adults (Peterson & Roberts, 1992).…”

Accelerating children's risk for injury: Mothers' decisions regarding common safety rules

“…However, barrier methods which alter the environment are appropriate for only a few of the circumstances that put the child at risk (Peterson and Roberts, 1992). In addition to environmental interventions, leaders in the field now believe that behavioral medicine offers the greatest promise for effective prevention methods in the future (Scheidt, 1988).…”

“…Although a few behavioral scientists have successfully intervened with children themselves, there is a consensus that behavioral interventions with parents are the most promising port of entry to prevent childhood injury (Garbarino, 1988;Peterson and Roberts, 1992). The injury prevention field has employed many passive, educational interventions to alter parents' responses to injury risk, mostly with disappointing results (cf.…”