Parents & Children
Keeping Kids Safe: Fathers and Injury Prevention
Mariana Brussoni, UBC & BC Injury Research & Prevention Unit
Lise Olsen, UBC & BC Injury Research & Prevention Unit
David Sheftel, BC Council for Families
Anne George, UBC
Fathers have often been described as the parent that is most active in taking kids out and introducing them to the world. This is an important role that helps children thrive. We are doing research to help fathers keep their children safe while they are introducing them to new things.
We know that parents play a large role in keeping their children safe, but this knowledge comes mostly from research with mothers. Our knowledge about what fathers think about safety and how fathers keep their kids safe is limited.
We are interested in learning more about preventing child injuries because they are the leading killer in Canada. More kids die of injuries such as car crashes and falling than all other causes combined.
In a study funded by the Vancouver Foundation, we spoke to 32 fathers of children aged 2 to 7 years-old. They came from all walks of life and many different cultural backgrounds. The fathers have been helping us understand how they think about injury prevention and the kinds of things they do to protect their children.
Some of our findings:
- Many fathers thought that it’s important to let children try new things, even though they may be risky.
- Fathers felt that risk taking helps children have new experiences and expand their world. They talked about many things children could learn through risk-taking, such as:
- Learning about themselves, what kind of person they are and what their limits may be
- Developing new physical and mental skills
- Gaining self-confidence
- Developing abilities to take responsibility for their own safety
- Understanding what is dangerous and to be avoided
- Feeling minor injuries and what pain feels like
- Learning the limits of the environment and how to interact with it
- Fathers considered the potential severity of injury in deciding what activities to do with their children. Many fathers felt that as long as a doctor’s visit wasn’t needed, that was ok.
- Fathers told us many reasons why they felt it was important to protect their children from serious injuries. These included the horrible physical impact that serious injuries could have on the children, and also the psychological impacts such as feeling traumatised, losing trust in dad’s ability to protect them and losing confidence in their own abilities.
- Fathers had several strategies for keeping their kids safe, such as supervising their children, using safety equipment, teaching their children about safety, and modifying or controlling the environment to make it safer.
- Fathers were mixed in describing whether they or the child’s mother was more open to physical risk taking. In many cases, fathers saw themselves as more willing to take risks with their children. In other cases, parents were described as equal, or perhaps different depending on the circumstances. Occasionally, mothers were more open to risk taking than fathers.
We are planning a follow-up study to talk to fathers in rural parts of BC as well as in Quebec and to talk to mothers to get their perspectives on child safety and the role that different parents can play. This research helps us ultimately design safety programs that make sense to fathers and fit with their ideas regarding raising their children in the way they see works best for them.
Role of the Father in Childhood Injury
Every parent knows the fear of seeing their child injured, even if it's as minor as a scrape on the knee. While kids are definitely prone to minor injuries as they grow and experience new things, parental influences also greatly determine a child's tendency to become injured.
“Fathers' roles in childhood injury are actually very important, but we're only beginning to discover what those roles could be,” says Dr. Mariana Brussoni, a developmental psychologist and researcher active in the Men's Health Initiative of BC. “Their role in simplistic terms is that they are the parent who really takes charge of taking the child out into the world and introducing them to new and potentially risky experiences.”
Contrary to what many parents think, risky experiences can actually be a good thing. In order to grow and develop, children need to learn how to manage challenges on their own. “It's very important for child development that children learn and grow by experiencing new things, and learn how to take risks,” says Dr. Brussoni. “Where it's important for child development and injury prevention is that we need to make sure that it's done in a way that's safe for children, so that they can go and take those risks safely.”
The danger of children taking unhealthy risks is that younger children don't yet have the capacity for understanding danger. For example, young kids don't realize that running into the street could be deadly. This is where parents need to be actively involved, to make sure that kids are taking safe risks.
“It's important to learn from fathers how they think about this role and this behaviour, and we want to make sure that in our work that we acknowledge the important role that fathers play,” says Dr. Brussoni. “Then, we can gear our injury prevention activities in ways that make sense for their priorities.”
Fathers' Perception of Risk
There have been a number of studies done on a mother's perception of risk and the impact on child injury, but it's an important topic for both sexes. According to the National Safety Council, unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death in children ages one to four years. How their parents – mothers and fathers - perceive risk has a key role in their child's well-being.
“The father's decision-making process around allowing their children to take risks is quite complex, and we're really just starting to learn about it,” says Dr. Mariana Brussoni, a developmental psychologist and researcher active in the Men's Health Initiative of BC. “Some of the things that we do know that go into their thinking about allowing their children to take risks are how badly does the child want that particular experience, how badly does the father want the child to have that particular experience, is the child developmentally ready for that experience, and do they have the experience and the physical know-how to be able to handle that experience,” says Dr. Brussoni.
Children go through a variety of developmental stages as they grow, and will be ready for certain experiences at different times. It's up to the parent to help ensure that their child is safe while trying new experiences, in order to avoid injury. The father's conception around what a minor or major injury is varies a great deal. “Some fathers are willing to take very few risks with injury, and others are willing to, for example, have children with broken limbs and things like that,” says Dr. Brussoni.
One of the most important parts of parenting is setting a good example. “We know that children tend to want to follow in their parents' footsteps, and the modeling that fathers do does have an impact on a child's behaviour,” says Dr. Brussoni. “If children see their fathers undertaking risky activities, such as riding motorbikes or climbing mountains, there will be more of an interest in doing those activities at a younger age.”
Parents & Child Injury Prevention
From minor bumps to deep cuts, children's injuries are almost always preventable. Unintentional injuries are a leading cause of death to children over the age of one. According to UNICEF, each day over 2,000 children and teenagers die from injuries that could have been prevented. Parents play a central role in the prevention of their child being injured.
“We know that parents have an important impact on child injury prevention, particularly for younger ages such as preschool and early school-aged children,” says Dr. Mariana Brussoni, a developmental psychologist and researcher active in the Men's Health Initiative of BC.
The risk of injury depends on factors such as the developmental stage a child is at, the dangers present, and how much the parent is supervising the child. If supervision is intermittent, there is a greater chance of injury than if the parent is continuously paying attention.
“We know that their attitudes and practices around child injury have a big impact on how many injuries their children actually end up experiencing,” says Dr. Brussoni. “For example, if their attitudes toward supervision are more lax than other parents, then they might allow their children to do things unsupervised that other parents might not. If their child isn't quite developmentally ready for it, the child could end up getting injured.”
The risk of child injury also depends on a child's gender: according to Health Canada's Parental Attitudes Toward Unintentional Childhood Injuries report, over the age of 2, boys die from unintentional injuries at a rate approximately two times that of girls.
Some examples where parents differ when it comes to letting their children do things unsupervised are:
- Walking to and from school
- Using playground equipment
- Riding a bike, rollerblading, or skateboarding
As a parent, you play a life-saving role in protecting your child from injury. By learning as much as you can about child injury prevention, and adequately supervising your child, you are eliminating a great deal of the risk.
Injury As A Risk Factor For Mortality
Injuries are the leading cause of death among children. Each year, an average of 390 Canadian children die and 25,500 are hospitalized as a result of childhood injuries. According to Health Canada's Parental Attitudes Toward Unintentional Childhood Injuries report, over the age of 2, boys die from unintentional injuries at a rate approximately two times that of girls. Boys are more likely to undertake risky behaviours, and parents are usually more willing to let their boys try activities than their girls.
“Injury is a big issue for everyone. Actually, it's the leading cause of death for people aged one to 44, but there is a big sex difference in injuries, in that boys and men experience a great deal more injuries than girls,” says Dr. Mariana Brussoni, a developmental psychologist and researcher active in the Men's Health Initiative of BC. “The sex difference appears as early as age two and increases with age.”
