Determinants of controllable in-home child safety hazards

Interviews with 230 mothers of young children (less than 5 years of age) were used to observe hazards in the home that parents could control. Factors indicative of informational, stress and coping, and parenting deficits on the part of mothers are major explanatory groups of variables in the prediction of controllable hazards in the home. Additional self-report measures included child's previous injury experience, and sociodemographic and socioeconomic indicators. The most important predictors of controllable home hazards were socioeconomic status, housing repair, perceived risks (informational deficits), maternal social support (deficits in handling stress) and maternal supervision (parenting deficits). Findings suggest that educational programs on child injury control directed at parents need to incorporate parenting skills education as well as child development components.