2-109 - Bridging the Basic-Applied Divide: The Interplay of Developmental Processes and Injury Risk

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Unintentional injuries pose a significant threat to children’s health and wellbeing worldwide (World Health Organization, 2008). In the United States, for example, there are over 12,000 deaths to 0- to 19-year-olds annually and over 9 million visits to emergency rooms (Borse et al., 2008). Epidemiology, engineering, and public health have yielded important insights into risk and protective factors, but recent calls for research have emphasized the role that psychological processes (e.g., cognitions, perceptions) play in unintentional childhood injuries. Parenting, developmental, and social processes are especially critical for understanding and preventing childhood injuries (Gielen & Sleet, 2003; Morrongiello & Lasenby-Lessard, 2007). The fields of developmental, child clinical and pediatric psychology are well-positioned to address this public health need, but limited research attention to childhood injury in these fields has left substantial gaps in our understanding of child injury-risk processes. In this symposium we will demonstrate how developmental psychology can inform our understanding of children’s risk of injury and strategies for prevention (Morrongiello & Schwebel, 2008), and how such applied work can improve our understanding of basic developmental processes (Schwebel, Plumert, & Pick, 2000). The presenters will discuss: how the development of young children’s categorization and symbol recognition skills influences poisoning risk (Schwebel), how changes in perceptual-motor skills influence child cyclists’ road-crossing behavior (Plumert), and how parental reactions (discipline-focused vs. teaching-focused) to young children’s hazard-interactions impacts subsequent injury-risk behaviors of boys vs girls (Morrongiello).

Sub Unit

• Health, Growth, Injury

Chair

• Nancy Kassam-Adams, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Discussant

• Andrew Tolmie, University College London

Individual Presentations

• The Home Environment: How Development of Categorization and Symbol Recognition Influence Child Poisoning Risk - Presenting Author: David C Schwebel, Univ of Alabama-Birmingham; Hayley Wells, Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham; Anna Johnston, University of Alabama at Birmingham

• How Do Children Perceive and Act on Dynamic Affordances When Crossing Roads? - Presenting Author: Jodie Plumert, University of Iowa; Joseph K. Kearney, University of Iowa

• Parent Reactions to Children’s Injury-Risk Behaviors: Differential Longitudinal Effects on Boys’ and Girls’ Hazard Interactions - Presenting Author: Barbara A Morrongiello, University of Guelph; Brae Anne McArthur, University of Guelph; Jeffrey R. Spence, University of Guelph