CHILD DIFFICULT TEMPERAMENT AND PARENTAL CLOSE SUPERVISION AS DETERMINANTS OF UNINTENTIONAL HOME INJURY IN THAI TODDLERS

Abstract

The purpose of this descriptive research was to examine the child difficult temperament and parental close supervision in determining unintentional home injury in Thai toddlers. Since, most unintentional home injury in children of 1-3 years studies have shown association among child difficult temperament and parental close supervision; therefore, this study also explored the combined power of child difficult temperament and parental close supervision  as being able to predict unintentional home injury in Thai toddlers. Further the ability to predict unintentional home injury by measuring child difficult temperament and parental close supervision. Besides, a few studies of determinant of unintentional home injury have been clearly investigated empirically in Thailand. Convenient samples from 200 mothers of 1-3 year-old children living in Bangkok were selected. They were interviewed using four questionnaires:  A Demographic Questionnaire, Child’s Temperament for Injury  Risk, Parental  Supervision,  and Unintentional  Home Injury in Thai  Toddlers. Data analysis  was performed using descriptive statistics and multiple regressions to investigate predictors on unintentional home injury in toddlers.  Results indicated that child difficult temperament had the greatest significant positively association with unintentional home injury while parental supervision had significant negatively association with unintentional  home injury. The child difficult  temperament had  combination  of parental  close supervision accounted for 39.8% of the variance in unintentional home injury in Thai toddlers. Recommendation is for nurses, researcher, and health policy makers to educate and reinforce the caretakers of difficult temperament child regarding close supervision in order to reduce and prevent home injuries in toddlers.