The Stamp-in-Safety program: a behavioral intervention to reduce behaviors that can lead to unintentional playground injury in a preschool setting.
OBJECTIVE
To introduce and evaluate the Stamp-in-Safety program, a behavioral intervention designed to increase the quality of supervision by teachers on preschool playgrounds and to reduce the risk of unintentional child playground injury.


METHODS
A quasi-experimental time series design was used, with observational techniques, to evaluate behavior on the playground before, during, and after the intervention as well as during a 6-month post-intervention assessment.


RESULTS
Both applied behavior analysis techniques and inferential statistics suggest that the Stamp-in-Safety program resulted in behavioral changes likely to reduce the risk of child injury on the playgrounds of childcare centers.


CONCLUSIONS
Results indicate promise for the Stamp-in-Safety program as a low-cost, easily implemented intervention to reduce pediatric playground injury risk at childcare centers. Suggestions for future research are offered.
Schwebel
David C
DC
Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1300 University Boulevard, CH 415, Birmingham, Alabama 35294, USA. schwebel@uab.edu
Summerlin
Adam L
AL
Bounds
Marjorie L
ML
Morrongiello
Barbara A
BA
D000328:Adult; D000407:Alabama; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D032763:Behavior Control / Q000379:methods*; D002656:Child Day Care Centers; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010988:Play and Playthings / Q000293:injuries; D014040:Token Economy; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control*