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Pilot evaluation of a virtual training program for child injury prevention
M McCart1, A Glang1, K Kelley1
1Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, 1585 E 13th Ave, Eugene, OR 97403, USA.
Insights
Virtual injury prevention training improved children's safety knowledge and intentions. This accessible program shows promise for reducing child injury risks nationwide.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Pediatric Injury Prevention
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Unintentional injuries are a primary cause of mortality in children.
- Traditional in-person injury prevention programs face accessibility challenges, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of a virtual behavioral injury prevention program for children (ages 3-18) and their caregivers.
- To assess changes in injury prevention knowledge, perceived vulnerability, self-efficacy, and behavioral intentions.
Main Methods:
- A 4-hour virtual training program was delivered online to 41 children and 14 caregivers.
- Training content was tailored to three developmental stages: ages 3-5, 6-12, and 13-18 years.
- Outcomes measured included knowledge, perceived vulnerability, self-efficacy, and behavioral intentions regarding safety.
Main Results:
- Participants demonstrated significant improvements in self-efficacy for safety behaviors and knowledge of injury prevention strategies.
- Behavioral intentions to engage in safe practices increased post-training.
- Caregivers of young children reported a slight decrease in perceived child vulnerability to injury.
Conclusions:
- Remote, virtual delivery of behavioral injury prevention training is feasible and effective in promoting behavior change.
- The program shows potential for reducing child injury risk, a leading cause of child death.
- Scalable virtual programs warrant further research and dissemination to address unintentional injuries in children.
Abstract:
Unintentional injuries are a leading cause of child death. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of a behavioral injury prevention program for children aged 3-18 years and their caregivers. To accommodate families during the Coronavirus-19 pandemic, training was modified to be delivered virtually. Forty-one children aged 3-18 years and 14 parents/caregivers of children aged 3-5 years attended one of several 4-hour online injury prevention training sessions directed toward residents of Washington state. Training was targeted to three different developmental stages (ages 3-5, 6-12 and 13-18 years). Study outcomes included knowledge about injury prevention strategies, perceived vulnerability for injury, self-efficacy to engage in safety behaviors and behavioral intentions to be safe. Following training, participants showed improved self-efficacy to stay safe, excellent knowledge about the learned material and increased behavioral intention to engage safely. There was minimal change in perceived vulnerability to injury among children; caregivers of young children felt their children were somewhat less vulnerable to injury following the training. Almost all participants said they would recommend the program to others. Results suggest that a virtual behavioral training program delivered remotely is feasible and may be effective to create behavior change and reduce child injury risk. Given its scalability and reach, such programs are recommended for further study, refinement and, if demonstrated effective in larger-scale controlled trials, dissemination to address the leading cause of child mortality in the United States, unintentional injury.
