The health consequences of child mental health problems and parenting styles: Unintentional injuries among European schoolchildren

Abstract

Objective Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death for schoolchildren. We assessed the association between externalizing psychopathology, parenting style, and unintentional injury in European children in the community. Methods Data were drawn from the School Children Mental Health in Europe project and included 4517 schoolchildren across seven diverse European regions. Past year injuries serious enough to seek medical atten tion were reported by mothers. Child mental health problems were assessed using validated measures and re ported by the mothers, teachers, and children. Parenting styles were based on The Parenting Scale and the Parent Behaviors and Attitudes Questionnaire. Results. Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity symptoms and oppositional defant symptoms had a higher risk of injury compared to other children whether based on parent report (OR = 1.47, 95% C.I. 1.2 1.9), teacher report (OR = 1.36, 95% C.I. 1.1 1.7), or parent- and teacher-report combined (OR = 1.53, 95% C.I. 1.1 2.1). Children who self reported oppositional symptoms also had higher risk of injury (OR = 1.6, 95% C.I. 1.1 2.4). Low caring behavior of parents increased the risk of injury (OR = 1.4, 95% C.I. 1.1-1.9). Conclusion Unintentional injury is a potential adverse health consequence of child externalizing problems. Interventions to improve parent child relationships and prevention as well as focused treatment for externaliz ing problems may reduce the burden of injury.

Probing the Psychosocial Correlates of Unintentional Injuries Among Grade-School Children: A Comparison of Urban and Migrant Students in China

“…Our findings confirmed that emotional symptoms, conduct problems and hyperactivity were significantly associated with unintentional injury, which was demonstrated by prior studies (Keyes et al 2014;Lalloo et al 2003). Lalloo reported that English children who scored high for emotional symptoms and hyperactivity were 1.5 times more likely to report minor accidents (Lalloo et al 2003).…”

“…The annual prevalence of unintentional injury among 5 to 9 grades schoolchildren in Yinzhou was revealed 38%, which was higher than that in Europe (17.3%) (Keyes et al 2014), Canada (24%) (Gilbride et al 2006), and Jordan (33.9%) (ALBashtawy et al 2016), but lower than Yemen (48%) (Alshahethi 2014) and Thailand (46.8%) (Peltzer and Pengpid 2012). The prevalence was also higher than prior similar studies in China.…”

“…Previous studies have demonstrated the profile of unintentional injuries among children and adolescents. The prevalence of unintentional injuries during the past 12 months was 17.3% in Europe (Keyes et al 2014), 24% in Canada (Gilbride et al 2006), 33.9% in Jordan (ALBashtawy et al 2016, 48% in Yemen (Alshahethi 2014), and 46.8% in Thailand (Peltzer and Pengpid 2012). The most common injuries were dislocations and sprains, open wounds, and superficial injuries and contusions (Spady et al 2004); Falls, animal bites, traffic accidents, and burns were leading causes of these injuries (Bhamkar et al 2016;Peltzer and Pengpid 2017).…”

“…Injuries are a frequent and sometimes devastating outcome of risk taking but are also inherent in the environment in which adolescents live, study, and play (Sleet et al 2010). The occurrence of unintentional injuries in children is associated with multilevel factors, including but not limited to socioeconomic factors (Gilbride et al 2006;Simpson et al 2005), psychological disorders (Asbridge et al 2014;Chen et al 2005), risk-taking behavior (Feng et al 2017), school environment (Fang et al 2015;ALBashtawy et al 2016) and parenting style (Keyes et al 2014). In China, the ecological model has been introduced to estimate the effects of both individual factors and contextual environments on unintentional injuries among children aged 6-16 in Chongqing, a south-western city (Hu et al 2018).…”

Association Between Maternal Postpartum Depression and Unintentional Injury Among 4-Month-Old Infants in Japan

“…Individual risk factors for children include being male [8], being of a higher birth order [9], and externalizing problems [10], while individual risk factors for parents are young maternal age [9], low education level [11], and maternal depression [9,12,13]. Risk factors for households include low socioeconomic status [14], and highly stressful or adverse life events in the family [8,15].…”