Mothers' Supervision and Perception of Young Children's Risk of Unintentional Injury in the Home

Investigated whether control exerted through supervision isbelieved by mothers to reduce risk of unintentional injury totheir children. 150 mothers of 1-, 2-, and 3-year-old childrenrated the risk of their child having an injury and indicatedwhat injuries they anticipated in different rooms of the homeunder four conditions of supervision. A clear effect of supervisionwas observed in that rated risk and the number of anticipatedinjuries decreased depending on whether the mother was in thesame room or not. Furthermore, a decrease was found when themother was in the same room engaged in the same activity asthe child (either playing with or being assisted by the child).The observed effects of supervision were less strong for olderchildren and for rooms perceived as less dangerous.