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.

Conclusion

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.

Key Words: childhood injuries, parental supervision, poisoning