Motives of Childhood Firesetters: Firesetting Characteristics and Psychological Correlates

The present study evaluated curiosity and anger as motives among childhood firesetters. Parents of 133 firesetters (ages 6-13) completed the Fire Incident Analysis (FIA) to permit classification of the children as high and low on each of these two primary motives and to document details of the child's most serious incident within the past 12 months. The children were compared on measures of child dysfunction and firesetting history. An effect of Curiosity was found on measures of psychopathology, firesetting risk, and fire involvement, whereas an effect of Anger was found on measures of firesetting risk and the behavioral correlates of individual incidents. The results clarify the role of child motive in understanding firesetting involvement.