Mothers' safety intervention strategies with toddlers and their relationship to child characteristics

Abstract

Injury prevention at home is an important concern for parents of toddlers. This study investigated safety‐related intervention strategies of 40 middle‐class Australian mothers, and their relationship with three child characteristics: gender, temperament and language comprehension. In an interview at home, mothers reported frequency of use of 15 strategies and completed a child temperament questionnaire. Their two‐year‐olds were tested for language comprehension. Principal component analysis revealed three types of strategies: educate, control, and remove risk. Relationships were found between strategy type and two child characteristics: temperament and language comprehension. Control strategies were linked to active, intense children; and educate strategies were linked to persistent children and to children with higher language comprehension. Implications are discussed for safety‐related parenting strategies with toddlers.

Keywords:

• Mothers
• Toddlers
• Safety strategies

Acknowledgement

This research was completed as part of a Master of Arts program at Macquarie University and was supported by a grant from the Macquarie University Postgraduate Research Fund Scheme.