Supervising kids' play
Patricia Schnitzer
Most parents are vigilant about making sure their children are safe. Yet even the most watchful parent can be distracted. And that’s all it may take for a serious injury to occur. So just how closely do toddlers need to be watched in order to prevent accidents? That’s what one Sinclair School of Nursing researcher hopes to learn.
Patricia Schnitzer, an assistant professor of nursing specializing in public health and epidemiology, is using a $34,764 grant from the University of Missouri Research Board for “HURT! Helping Understand Risks to Toddlers.” She points out that injury is the leading cause of death among young children. “The risk of a child developing cancer is miniscule compared to the risk of serious injury,” she says. “Therefore, this is a critical area for research that could lead to injury prevention.”
Schnitzer plans to use her findings from this pilot study to obtain major grant funding for a large research program that ultimately will lead to development of an intervention to help parents protect young children from injury.
Schnitzer’s previous research experience focused on examining injury deaths of children less than age 5. She worked with researchers connected to Missouri’s Child Fatality Review Program, which is charged by law with looking into child deaths in the state. Initial studies that led to the review program’s creation indicated that child deaths caused by abuse or neglect were underreported. By understanding the circumstances surrounding an unexpected child fatality, researchers hope to recognize telltale warning signs and situations that can be changed to protect children.
“With HURT, we want to collect data on toddlers who need medical care related to an injury and determine what role parental supervision played,” she says. In the process, Schnitzer notes that other factors will be explored, such as the way a child’s temperament and behavior affect the likelihood of injury. Family structure, parents’ social support, beliefs about supervision and environmental factors also will be documented. “We’re looking for the locus of control, that is, how much parents actually control their children’s health and well being,” she adds.
If Schnitzer is successful, she will begin to see patterns that may predict parental supervision and subsequent child injury. “It’s somewhat tricky because we know that kids do get hurt during the course of normal development,” she says. “Kids need to explore as they grow, and parents shouldn't’t completely prohibit that. So there’s a fine line between overprotection and allowing the child to explore as part of the developmental process.”
Schnitzer emphasizes that the aim of her project is to explain behavior, not blame parents for neglecting their children. Rather, she is on the parents’ side, planning to create some type of informational or program-based intervention that will help define appropriate supervisory levels for specific ages and suggest ways to protect children from injury without smothering their curiosity and opportunities for creative play.