Comparison of Two Programs to Teach Firearm Injury Prevention Skills to 6- and 7-Year-Old Children

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Background. Each year, hundreds of children unintentionally kill or injure other children while playing with firearms in the United States. Although the numbers of these deaths and injuries are distressing, few prevention programs have been developed to prevent gun play among children.Objective. This study compared the efficacy of 2 programs designed to prevent gun play among young children.Design. A posttest-only, control group design with 2 treatment groups was used. Children were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 treatment groups or a control group. For all children who did not exhibit the skills after training, 1 in situ (ie, real-life situation) training session was conducted.Setting. Participant recruitment, training sessions, and assessments were all conducted in the children's after-school program facility.Participants. Forty-five children, 6 or 7 years of age, were recruited for participation.Interventions. The efficacy of the Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program, developed by the National Rifle Association, and a behavioral skills training program that emphasized the use of instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback was evaluated.Main Outcome Measures. The criterion firearm safety behaviors included both motor and verbal responses, which were assessed in a naturalistic setting and then assigned a numerical value based on a scale of 0 to 3.Results. Both programs were effective for teaching children to verbalize the safety skills message (don't touch the gun, get away, and tell an adult). However, children who received behavioral skills training were significantly more likely to demonstrate the desired safety skills in role-playing assessments and in situ assessments than were children who received Eddie Eagle program training. In addition, in situ training was found to be effective for teaching the desired safety skills for both groups of children.Conclusions. Injury prevention programs using education-based learning materials are less effective for teaching children the desired safety skills, compared with programs incorporating active learning approaches (eg, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback). The efficacy of both types of injury prevention programs for teaching the desired skills could be significantly enhanced with the use of in situ training. This program, when implemented with 6-and 7-year-old children, was effective in teaching the desired safety skills. Pediatrics 2004; 114:e294 -e299. URL: http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/ content/full/114/3/e294; gun safety, gun play, Eddie Eagle, behavioral skills training, in situ training, injury prevention, children.ABBREVIATION. BST, behavioral skills training.

Teaching Safety Skills to Children: Prevention of Firearm Injury as an Exemplar of Best Practice in Assessment, Training, and Generalization of Safety Skills

“…The results of , , Gatheridge et al (2004), and Kelso et al (2007) demonstrated the importance of in situ training for teaching safety skills to children. Although BST was effective for some children, in situ training resulted in successful performance for all children who did not perform the safety skills following BST.…”

“…To conduct a skills assessment, the trainer tells the child that he or she will act out a situation and ask the child to "show me what you would do in this situation" (e.g., Gatheridge et al, 2004;Miltenberger & Olson, 1996). The trainer then creates the scenario and assesses the child's skills as the child responds to the simulated safety threat.…”

“…Assessing a child's knowledge of safety skills typically is conducted by describing a scenario involving a safety threat and asking the child to describe how he or she would respond to the situation (e.g., Carroll et al, 1992;Gatheridge et al, 2004). Although these assessments are easy to conduct, they have limited validity.…”

“…Research has shown that a behavioral skills training (BST) approach is superior to an informational approach for teaching various safety skills to children (e.g., Gatheridge et al, 2004;Poche et al, 1988;Wurtele, Saslawsky, Miller, Marrs, & Britcher, 1986). In BST, children first receive instructions and modeling.…”

Teaching Safety Skills to Children to Prevent Gun Play: An Evaluation of in Situ Training

“…Two important risk factors associated with unintentional firearm injuries in children are unsafe firearm storage and children's tendency to play with guns they find. Recently, researchers have evaluated procedures to prevent gun play (e.g., Gatheridge et al, 2004;. and Miltenberger et al (2004) showed that behavioral skills training (BST) was effective for some children, but that the effectiveness of BST was enhanced with the addition of in situ training for others.…”