Abstract

Unintentional injuries within the home are a major health risk for infants and toddlers. Previous theoretical and empirical work identified parental risk perception as a key determinant of parents’ preventive behaviour. Yet, little is known about how parents perceive their children’s risk for unintentional injuries within the home. Since unintentional injuries are considered largely preventable, theoretical guidance that helps to better understand parental risk perception is required. The objective of this study was to develop a theoretical model which helps to better understand how parents perceive the risk of their infants and toddlers regarding unintentional injuries within the home. In this qualitative study, nine photo-based semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents of infants and toddlers (0 to 4 years) in the city and district of Munich. Grounded theory methodology was used for data collection and analysis. Findings indicate that parental risk perception can be described as a continuum which is determined by the development and personality of the child as well as by ‘teachable moments’, such as previous (near-)injuries. While risk perception of parents with only one child was predominantly driven by the development of the child, risk perception of parents with two children was driven by the personality of the child. A first theoretical model that describes how parents perceive their children’s risk regarding unintentional home injuries was developed. Since this study highlights differences in parental risk perception depending on whether one or two children are living in the household, future research on parental risk perception should consider the number of children living in the household. From our theoretical model, practical implications for tailoring prevention interventions by health practitioners can be derived (e.g. exposing parents to information of the developmental process of the child), which may increase parents’ engagement in injury prevention.

摘要

家庭内意外伤害是婴幼儿的主要健康风险。先前的理论和实证研究都将父母的风险感知视为父母预防行为的关键决定因素。然而，对于父母如何看待孩子在家中意外受伤的风险知之甚少。由于意外伤害在很大程度上可以预防，因此需要有助于更好地了解父母风险感知的理论指导。这项研究的目的是建立一个理论模型，以帮助更好地理解父母如何看待婴儿和学步儿童在家中意外受伤的风险。在这项定性研究中 对慕尼黑市和地区的婴幼儿父母（0至4岁）进行了九次基于照片的半结构化访谈。扎根的理论方法用于数据收集和分析。研究结果表明，父母的风险感知可以描述为一个连续的过程，它是由孩子的成长和个性以及“可教的时刻”（例如先前（接近）的伤害）决定的。虽然只有一个孩子的父母对风险的感知主要是由孩子的成长所驱动，但是对于有两个孩子的父母的风险感知是由孩子的个性所驱动。建立了第一个理论模型，该模型描述了父母如何看待孩子遭受意外家庭伤害的风险。由于本研究强调了父母风险感知的差异，具体取决于一个或两个孩子是否居住在家庭中，因此有关父母风险感知的未来研究应考虑家庭中生育的儿童数量。从我们的理论模型中，可以得出针对卫生从业人员量身定制预防干预措施的实际含义（例如，使父母了解孩子的成长过程的信息），这可能会增加父母对伤害预防的投入。