E Whitehead
Parental perceptions of unintentional injury risks to children
Whitehead, E; Owens, DD
Authors
DD Owens
Abstract
This paper focuses on a qualitative study of parents’ perceptions of unintentional
injury risks to their children, highlighting the fundamental difficulty of convincing
parents that injuries are a serious threat to children’s health and that they are
preventable. It also explores the parent’s role in prevention, the difficulties they face
in keeping children safe and their perceptions of the best prevention strategies.
The participants were nine parents with children under 15 years, from two
disadvantaged, inner-city wards in the north west of England, where injury rates
would typically be high. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and the data
were analysed using a framework analysis. The findings indicate that although the
majority of parents were able to identify potential risks to children within everyday
situations, and offer alternative courses of action, it was significant that they did not
feel that injuries were preventable, but rather an inevitable part of growing up.
The participants identified information, free equipment schemes and home safety
checks as potential tools in injury prevention. However, parental perceptions of the
inevitability of injuries were a key barrier to prevention.
Citation
Whitehead, E., & Owens, D. (2012). Parental perceptions of unintentional injury risks to children. International Journal of Health Promotion and Education, 50(1), 20-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/14635240.2012.661953
| Journal Article Type | Article |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | Jan 1, 2012 |
| Deposit Date | Jun 10, 2015 |
| Journal | International Journal of Health Promotion and Education |
| Print ISSN | 1463-5240 |
| Electronic ISSN | 2164-9545 |
| Publisher | Routledge |
| Peer Reviewed | Not Peer Reviewed |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 20-27 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1080/14635240.2012.661953 |
| Publisher URL | http://dx.doi.org.salford.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/14635240.2012.661953 |
| Related Public URLs | http://www-tandfonline-com.salford.idm.oclc.org/loi/rhpe20#.VXW62KI0XTo |