Measuring parent attributes and supervision behaviors relevant to child injury risk: examining the usefulness of questionnaire measures

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to identify self report questionnaire measures of parent attributes and behaviors that have relevance for understanding injury risk among children 2-5 years of age, and test a new Parent Supervision Attributes Profile Questionnaire (PSAPQ) that was developed to measure aspects of protectiveness and parent supervision. Methods: Naturalistic observations were conducted of parents' supervision of children on playgrounds, with questionnaires subsequently completed by the parent to measure parent education, family income, parent personality attributes, attributes relevant to parent supervision, and beliefs about parents' control over the child's health status. These measures were then related to children's risk taking and injury history. Results: Visual supervision, auditory supervision, and physical proximity were highly intercorrelated, indicating that parents employed all types of behaviors in service of supervision, rather than relying predominantly on one type of supervisory behavior. Physical proximity was the only aspect of supervision behavior that served a protective function and related to children's risk taking behaviors: parents who remained close to their children had children who engaged in less risk taking. On questionnaires, parents who reported more conscientiousness, protectiveness, worry about safety, vigilance in supervision, confidence in their ability to keep their child safe, and belief in control over their child's health had children who showed less risk taking and/or experienced fewer injuries. The new PSAPQ measure was associated with specific aspects of supervision as well as children's risk taking and injury history. Conclusions: This study reveals several parent attributes and behaviors with relevance for child injury risk that can be measured via self report questionnaires, including the new PSAPQ. U nintentional injuries are a leading cause of death and hospitalization for children beyond 1 year of age.1 2 For young children, most injuries occur in and around the home when they are presumably in the care of someone who is supervising them (that is, overseeing their activities). 3 Inadequate supervision has been cited as a contributing factor for child injury in a variety of studies. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] However, very few studies have directly examined the relationship between supervision and child injury risk. 10 14-17 One of the greatest challenges to studying relations between supervision and child injury is deciding on appropriate measures of supervision. Naturalistic observations are time consuming, draining of personnel resources, and can produce distortions in data to the extent those observed behave unnaturally when being studied.18 Questionnaire measures have proven reliable and valid for studying a variety of parenting behaviors. 19 However, there have been no attempts to develop questionnaire measures of supervision or protectiveness that relate to child injury risk. The goal of the present study was to address this gap in knowledg...

Adapting an established measure of supervision for beach settings. Is the parent supervision attributes profile questionnaire reliable?

“…The PSAPQ Morrongiello & House, 2004) was modified slightly to make it relevant for the beach setting, although the overall focus of the measure was maintained. As the PSAPQ was designed as a non-context specific measure, it was considered appropriate that the four subscales relating to the dimensions of supervision (nine items), protectiveness (nine items), tolerance for child risk taking (eight items) and a belief in fate as the *Corresponding author.…”

“…developed the PSAPQ as a non-context specific measure to assess child injury risk and provide a general index of supervision. It has been tested extensively in the USA with published scores for content, criterion, divergent and convergent validity, test-retest reliability and internal consistency Morrongiello & House, 2004). The PSAPQ has been implemented in playgrounds and an extended version of the questionnaire has been used to measure maternal supervision at home (Morrongiello, Corbett, McCourt, & Johnston, 2006;Morrongiello & House, 2004).…”

Assessment of Childhood Domestic Injuries among Joint and Nuclear Families of Karachi

“…Moreover adopting various types of supervision behavior by parents could aid in reducing the incidence of unintentional injuries among children. These supervisory behaviors of parents can be visual, auditory and physical supervision, engaging children in non-injurious task and distracting them from risky games and activities [22].…”

Supervision and risk of unintentional injury in young children

“…It has been further documented that parents accurately report their supervision practices and these self-reports have been validated. [28,29] It is possible, however, that the parents' descriptions were subject to faulty recall. Although research suggests parents accurately recall the events leading up to a severe injury, particularly within a short timeframe for recall, [35][36][37][38] accurately recalling what they were doing one hour prior to the injury event might be more difficult.…”