Unintentional injury risk in school-age children: Examining interrelations between parent and child factors

ObjectiveResearch on children's risk of injury reveals that parent and child factors are often interrelated. This study examined relations between children's risk taking, parent appraisal of this risk taking, and children's rate of injury in youth 8 and 9 years old.MethodsResponses to questionnaires and laboratory tasks were used to examine whether extent of consistency in children's physical risk taking related to mothers' accuracy in predicting children's risk behaviors, and if mothers' accuracy scores, in turn, related to rate of unintentional injury for their school-age children.ResultsChild consistency in risk taking predicted parental accuracy in judging children's risk taking, and degree and direction of accuracy predicted children's injury rates.ConclusionsParents' judgments about their children's likelihood of risk taking are influenced by children's behavioral consistency and have implications for children's frequency of injury.

► Parent and child factors often interrelate to influence child injury risk.
► This study examined parents' judgments about their children's risk taking.
► How parent estimation relates to children's injury rate also was considered.
► Child consistency in risk taking predicted parental accuracy in estimation.
► Accuracy in estimation predicted children's rate of injury.