Posted on August 23, 2001 at 12:47 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — A study underway at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Department of Psychology aims to determine how three of the known risk factors for childhood accidental injuries interact to create a greater risk for injury. Those three factors include an impulsive temperament, a child’s unrealistic expectation of his or her physical ability, and poor parental control and monitoring.

“Pediatric psychologists have much to contribute in the battle to prevent children’s unintentional injuries,” said David C. Schwebel, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at UAB. “But to approach injury prevention from an educated viewpoint, we must gain a thorough understanding of the psychological factors that lead children to injure themselves.”

Injuries are the leading cause of mortality in children ages 1-18 and the rate of injury has decreased only slightly in recent years in the United States, according to the National Safety Council. An estimated 20.6 million children are injured unintentionally each year and 22,000 children die each year from such injuries.

Behavioral scientists have identified psychological factors that appear to predict an increased risk for children’s accidental injuries, said Schwebel, including impulsive, overactive and uncontrolled temperament and overestimation of physical ability, such as when children try to grab a tree branch overhead that’s actually well beyond their reach. Another risk factor, poor parental control, involves not only a lack of supervision, but also the absence of rules or ineffective rules that fail to inhibit a child’s actions. But until now, studies have not looked at how all three factors interact to increase the risk for accidents.

In the UAB study, children and parents will be recruited from Birmingham-area schools. The study will include approximately 75 6-year-olds and 8-year-olds, balanced equally by gender. The children will be asked to complete four exercises of ability estimation.

One task will involve reaching out from a squatting position to retrieve a small toy off a wooden block without touching hands or knees to the floor. In the vertical reach task, the children will try to remove a small toy from a shelf while standing on tiptoes. A stepping task will involve stepping from behind one stick attached to the floor over a second, parallel stick. In the clearance task, children will try to move under a wooden bar attached to two posts without knocking the bar down or putting hands or knees on the floor.

Each of the four tasks will be randomly set at one of four difficulty levels: well within the child’s estimated ability, just within a child’s ability, just beyond and well beyond a child’s ability. Task order and difficulty level will be determined randomly. Before completing each task, the children will be asked to judge whether they think they can successfully perform the task.

Parents will be present during only half the tests and will fill out surveys with questions about their child’s risk-taking behaviors. Researchers will use the data to determine how the presence of a parent might inhibit a child’s actions.

The study will provide researchers with a better understanding of the psychological causes of accidental childhood injuries and could lead to effective injury prevention programs targeted toward children and their families.

For more information, or to volunteer, contact David Schwebel, Ph.D., UAB Department of Psychology, at (205) 934-4068.

NOTE: September 1-7 is National Childhood Injury Prevention Week.