RHP&EO is the electronic journal of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education

Determinants Of Mother's Injury Preventive Behaviour

Eva. Sellstrom RN & Sven Bremberg MD PhD

Department of Pediatrics, Institution of Clinical Science, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge, Sweden.

In order to design injury preventive programs aiming at parents, understanding of injury preventive behaviour is essential. Previous research has mostly not considered the social context of parents. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis, that perceived social norms are the most important determinants of mothers' injury preventive behaviour. Three questionnaires A, B, and C, were each sent to 400 parents of 3, 4 and 9 year-old children, respectively. In order to measure determinants of injury preventive behaviour, different scenarios of possible injury situations, one for each questionnaire, were used. The perceived social norm, and other, potentially important determinants for injury preventive behaviour, were analysed by three multivariate logistic regression models. The final logistic models classified 73.2 - 82.7% of respondents correctly. Perceived norms of relatives and friends were found to be the most important determinants of mothers' injury preventive behaviours. Mothers' perceptions of injury risks or perceived norms of professionals at child health care and school did not explain their injury preventive behaviour. This study indicates, that in order to design injury prevention programmes, understanding of social norms is crucial.

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