Life events and injury in children: implications for schools

Life events have been identified as a characteristic associated with injury in children and adolescents. Life events include moving to a new home or school and the death or hospitalization of a family member. The purpose of this study was to verify this relationship between life events and injuries in school-age children aged 6-11 years. A case-control design compared life events among 76 injured and 77 well school-age children. The school-age children with injuries were evaluated in a pediatric trauma unit and the well school-age children were evaluated in both a pediatric clinic and a private pediatrician's office. The parents of all the subjects completed the Life Event Scale-Children and a demographic data sheet. Severity of injury was measured with the Pediatric Trauma Score. There were no differences in the number or types of life events between the injured and well school-age children. There was no relationship between severity of injury and life events. However, children whose parents were not currently married, who came from non-Caucasian families, and who had lower socioeconomic status had higher life Event Scale-Children scores than children whose parents were currently married, were from Caucasian families, and had higher socioeconomic status. School nurses need to be aware of the influence of life events on the lives of their students. While this study did not find a statistically significant relationship between injury and life events, being alert to the family characteristics of children who experience high numbers and many types of life events may assist the school nurse in understanding and providing care for these students.