Author(s): Amadi GA and Azunwena RN

Abstract:
Preschool children are usually vulnerable to accidents which may impair their physical wellbeing. The aim of this study was to assess the awareness of accident prevention strategies such as parental supervision and child proofing used by parents of preschool children for their physical wellbeing. A quantitative survey design was used for the study. A non-proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to select 600 respondents (240 fathers and 360 mothers) who were parents with children between the ages of 1-6 years old in Port Harcourt local government area. A simple random sampling technique was also used to select 6 towns that participated in the study. Collected data were analyzed using Packages for Social Science (SPSS) and presented in tables and standard deviation. Two hypotheses were tested using t-test at 0.05 significant. Respondents from the study were aware to a high extent that supervising and monitoring preschoolers while he/she is eating and playing can help prevent avoidable injuries’. They also showed high extent of awareness that watching for small buttons, snaps or other clothing articles that could be swallowed by preschoolers, preventing preschoolers from engaging in harmful plays, carefully lock or stow away every potential poison or hazard including medicines, detergents, vitamins, perfumes etc away from the reach of preschoolers; pick up coins, marbles, papers clips, pins, etc away from preschoolers, and being watchful when you have visitors who may be careless are effective in preventing accident at home. This study therefore reveals a great role of parents in ensuring the safety of their children at home. Parents should be educated either formally or informally on the importance of effective child supervision for child safety needs in the home. Childproof techniques such as barricading, fencing, etc should also be adopted to prevent preschoolers from home accidents.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22271/23957476.2020.v6.i3i.1088