Safety hazards in households with young children

Abstract

Interviewed 230 mothers of young children concerning in-home observations of safety hazards related to burns, poisoning, and falls, and self-reported measures of maternal supervision, locus of control, social support, and safety attitudes. These were supplemented by measures of mothers' risk perceptions, stress and coping, their child's previous injury experience, and indicators of the family's socioeconomic status (SES) collected by telephone survey. SES was an important predictor of observed home hazards. Child-related variables, risk perceptions, and domain-specific attitudes had little influence on home hazards. Maternal supervisory style, rated on dimensions of protectiveness, was an important correlate of all types of household hazards. Results suggest that residential injury prevention strategies for young children should stress active as well as passive countermeasures.