Parents' heuristics for judging children's accident risk.

• Examined heuristics that parents use for judging the risk or likelihood of accidents to children. It was hypothesized that the risk is judged on the basis of the number of personally experienced previous accidents or near-accidents that are recalled. Mothers (aged 20-49 yrs), female undergraduates who had theoretical knowledge but little experience with children, and female students with both little theoretical knowledge and experience (N = 216) judged the risk that a child at the age of 2-4, 5-6, 7-9, and 10-12 yrs would have an accident where the Ss lived. A positive relationship between judged risk and the number of recalled accidents was found but the latter referred to generic classes rather than to personal experiences, and the mothers did not judge the risk as higher and did not recall more accidents than the other Ss. When the risk of accidents to children was judged from specific descriptions, the importance of causal conceptions of accidents was verified.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Produktionsteknik, arbetsvetenskap och ergonomi (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Engineering Psychology

Teknisk psykologi

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)