The prevention of unintentional injuries, the leading cause of death and disability in children, is a major goal of public health for the next decade. Relatively little research has been done to increase understanding of how human behavior contributes to and can be modified to prevent injuries. Such an understanding of behavior and injury causation stands as a fundamental gap in our knowledge and is a necessary step in achieving this child health goal. Children's behavior primarily results from developmental maturation and early learning experiences and can be influenced by parents. When development or learning results in behavior that increases the risk for injury, the resulting dysfunction in child behavior can be analyzed using child health and development prevention and intervention research models. Our prelimiary studies show that a home hazard, lead poisoning, is influenced by developmental and environmental factors that can be objectively measured and experimentally analyzed and behaviors of children at risk for ingestion of lead substances can be readily modified using learning-based procedures. The proposed project will extend this pilot work to other home hazards. Experiment 1 will investigate the accuracy of parental information on home hazards by varying their foreknowledge about and purpose for a home visit and will also assess the relationship between home hazards and children's injuries. Experiment 2 will be an applied behavior analysis of parents and children in the presence of real and contrived hazards in home and clinic settings. Measures will include the child's approach to and contact with hazards, parental supervision and instruction, and differential consequences concerned with the hazards. Data from these measures will be compared with injury frequency and the number of home hazards. The results will demonstrate methods for obtaining objective measures of behavior related to home injury and will provide knowledge about classes of safe vs. unsafe behavior. The research will provide the basis for further studies on developmental differences that affect injury-related behavior and training techniques for both children and parents. As such, the proposed research represents an initial step in the development of a """"""""behavioral inoculation"""""""" to protect children from injury due to hazards that cannot be removed from the environment.
| Cataldo, M F; Finney, J W; Richman, G S et al. (1992) Behavior of injured and uninjured children and their parents in a simulated hazardous setting. J Pediatr Psychol 17:73-80 |
