Measuring injury risk perceptions: feasibility of a Risk Estimation Scale.
OBJECTIVE
To develop a scale for measuring parental perceptions of childhood injury risk.


METHODS
The Worry Assessment and Risk Estimation (WARE) Scale was administered to 256 parents/guardians to examine reliability, factor structure, and perception of risk.


RESULTS
The WARE Scale has high internal consistency reliability (alpha = .89). Parents underestimated scenarios with high injury/death rates and overestimated scenarios with low injury/death rates.


CONCLUSIONS
Risk estimation measures such as the WARE Scale have great potential as research tools and may be modified to suit researchers' needs.
Will
Kelli England
KE
Department of Pediatrics, Division of Community Health and Research, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA 23510, USA. willke@evms.edu
Lorek
Edward J
EJ
Sabo
Cynthia Shier
CS
Kidd
David G
DG