Lectures, Prompts and Contracts to Promote Parental Safety

Abstract

This study examined the effectiveness of lectures, prompts, and contracts in promoting maternal safety behaviours. The term maternal safety behaviours refers to any actions that mothers perform which will help prevent injuries to children, such as supervising toddlers near a swimming pool or storing poisons so that they are out of reach. Fifty-six mothers participated in a safety education program in one of four groups: (a) waiting-list control, (b) standard safety lecture, (c) lecture plus prompts (check-list), and (d) lecture plus prompts and contract. The results indicated that while there were no significant differences between groups in mothers' self-reported behaviours 6 to 8 weeks after the intervention, a consistent trend in the predicted direction was found. The results are discussed in relation to the need to develop more effective educational strategies based on behavioural techniques to promote parental safety within a minimal intervention framework.