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.
Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1300 University Boulevard, CH 415, Birmingham, Alabama 35294, USA. schwebel@uab.edu
David C
DC
Schwebel
Adam L
AL
Summerlin
Marjorie L
ML
Bounds
Barbara A
BA
Morrongiello
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*