Parenting behaviors and attitudes about supervision among parents of acutely poisoned children.
OBJECTIVE
This study describes the supervision beliefs of parents of children with unintentional poisonings and examines the relationship between supervision beliefs, household composition, and parental age.


METHODS
Children aged <60 months presenting with an unintentional poisoning to an emergency department or urgent care of an urban, academic medical center in Kansas City, Missouri, were identified. Parents completed the Beliefs About Supervision Questionnaire (BAS-Q) by phone within 2 weeks of their child's visit. The questionnaire consisted of 14 child activity scenarios, each followed by 2 questions: What age would you permit your child to perform this activity without constant supervision? How often would you check on a child of this age while engaged in the activity? Two scores were derived: mean age across all scenarios (BAS-Age) and mean time until child is checked on across all scenarios (BAS-Time).


RESULTS
One hundred parents completed the BAS-Q. The majority of respondents were mothers (82%), 40% had 2 or more children in the home aged 5 years or younger, and 61% had 2 or more adults living in the home. Pearson correlations revealed associations for BAS-Time with total children within the home (r = .28, P < .005) and number of children aged 6 to 12 years in the home (r = .28, P < .005). BAS-Age was not related to any aspect of household composition.


CONCLUSIONS
Less vigorous parental supervision was associated with an increased number of children in the home. Parental supervision may be influenced by reliance on other children in the home.
Sinclair
Kelly A
KA
Division of Emergency Medical Services, The Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri 64113, USA. ksinclair@cmh.edu
Morrongiello
Barbara A
BA
Dowd
M Denise
MD
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D010988:Play and Playthings; D011041:Poisoning; D012449:Safety