Mothers' safety intervention strategies with toddlers and their relationship to child characteristics

Injury prevention at home is an important concern for parents of toddlers. This study investigated safety-related intervention strategies of 40 middle-class Australian mothers, and their relationship with three child characteristics: gender, temperament and language comprehension. In an interview at home, mothers reported frequency of use of 15 strategies and completed a child temperament questionnaire. Their two-year-olds were tested for language comprehension. Principal component analysis revealed three types of strategies: educate, control, and remove risk. Relationships were found between strategy type and two child characteristics: temperament and language comprehension. Control strategies were linked to active, intense children; and educate strategies were linked to persistent children and to children with higher language comprehension. Implications are discussed for safety-related parenting strategies with toddlers.