Pediatric Unintentional Injury

¶ … toddler's temperament, 2) the toddler's behavior, and 3) the unintentional injury. The toddler's temperament takes into account such traits as the toddler's activity level, impulsivity, discomfort, inhibitory control, attentional shifting, fear, high intensity pleasure and sadness. The toddler's behavior (as it concerns risky behavior) includes; the proximity away from the parent, a low latency to engage with a novel environment, play with new toys or a stranger, and a low number of social references to the toddler's parent (visual and auditory signals).

The unintentional injury, of course, includes how often they occur as well as the severity of each incidence. One 2009 study determined that "biological risk at birth had adverse effects on Perceptual-motor and Social-adaptive developmental quotients (DQ's), and the easy temperament type had protective effects on Social-adaptive DQ's at the toddler age" (Hwang, Soong, Liao, 2009, p. 821). What is interesting about the Hwang et al.

study is that it shows that the temperament type "had protective effects." This study seeks to address the research gaps that have overlooked the child (toddler) in context regarding whether the toddler's behavior, interactions with adults and temperament are contributing factors to the amount and severity of incidence of accidents the toddler experiences. What this study seeks to address are the gaps evident in today's research on the subject of the various influences on injuries that happen to toddlers.

Previous literature may have overlooked items such as attention shifting, impulsivity and activity levels. Other studies have found that ADHD puts children more at risk than their siblings who are unaffected and that risk taking was predicted cognitive and emotional fears. However, most of the studies researched for this paper dealt with adolescents who could be classified as older than toddlers. The literature on toddlers mishaps, injuries and events is sparse. This study seeks to address that sparsity.

Additionally, the study looks at current evidence that supervision is one of the strongest protective behaviors regarding children. A study by Morrongiello & Schell (2010) found that closer supervision translates into fewer injuries. This study will not only take into account the lack of research on toddlers, it will also factor in the variable of close supervision by parents and responsible adults.

Again, toddlers have been somewhat left out of the study literature, it will be interesting to determine whether closer supervision for this age group results in fewer accidents and injuries. One thing that the researcher will have to keep in mind is the assertion that most parents are naturally more protective with toddlers than somewhat older siblings or children.

One question that this study could answer is whether that is a primary factor in fewer accidents, or if the percentages are still the same for toddlers as it is for older children. One other aspect this study seeks to include is the temperament of the.