An informed approach to the development of primary care pediatric firearm safety messages

Background Firearm ownership is prevalent in the US and many children spend time in areas where firearms are not stored safely. The AAP recommends firearm safety counseling at pediatric well-visits. Methods We developed and tested six contextual messages to promote safe firearm storage based on: absence of harm, collective appeal to understanding child behavior, pediatrician’s authority, evidence-based, fear appeal, and general safety considerations. One hundred four parents who keep firearms at home were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk Prime and viewed video messages and reported behavioral intentions and emotional reactions following each message. Results All six contextual messages were perceived as important and believable and increased parents’ intentions to follow safety advice provided, but also elicited negative emotions. The authority message elicited more negative emotions and resulted in lower intentions to follow safe storage advice. Conclusions Including firearm messages with other child safety advice merits further evaluation. Authority messages should be avoided.

CHILD SAFETY IN AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES: "LIVING ROOM" LAYOUT

Autonomous vehicles start to be introduced on our roads and will soon become a reality. Although fatal traffic accidents will be significantly reduced, remaining fatal passenger car crashes should be taken into account to ensure the safety of users. The new highly adaptable interior designs, with totally different layouts from the current ones, may significantly impact occupant safety, especially child passenger safety. Analyzing how these new vehicles affect child safety is a challenge that needs to be addressed. The "living room" layout (face-to-face seating position) is one of the preferences of families traveling with children. Young children need further support and supervision so the possibility of rotating seats to be able to be in front of the small children is a valuable feature for parents. Therefore, new seating orientations away from the forward facing position should be taken into account to ensure children protection. The objective of this study is to evaluate child occupant safety in a "living room" seating position (a possible option in full autonomous vehicles) versus the current forward facing position. Virtual testing methodology was used to perform this study. The virtual PIPER child human body model (HBM) was used. This model is one of the only HBMs developed and validated from child PMHS data (Paediatric Post-Mortem Human Surrogate). The two configurations were defined according with the EuroNCAP child occupant protection test protocol. It was found that the "living room" layout presents worse results according to the child's head injury patterns than in forward facing position. In conclusion, attending to the new seating orientations away from the forward facing position, it is necessary to adapt the restraint systems; otherwise children could suffer potentially dangerous situations.

How the Lack of a Universal Definition of Childhood Neglect is Negatively Impacting U.S. Families

Social Judgment Theory can be a useful tool in understanding the ways in which judgment plays a role in how Child Protective Investigators determine if a child has been neglected. In most States, more children are removed by charges of ‘neglect only’ than for any other reason. A close examination of the States’ definitions of childhood neglect may offer insight as to how the writing of laws allows for discernment among case workers and further how their judgment is impacted by their own personal beliefs. In an effort to ensure child safety and prevent future traumas, the utilization of Social Judgment Theory should be considered in the social and psychological research of child welfare. Varying definitions of how neglect may propose a new variable in the differing outcomes of child removal between the states are discussed.

ANALYSIS OF ELEMENTS INFLUENCING CHILD SAFETY IN HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS USING ANALYTICAL METHOD

Due to the lack of land in densely populated areas in Malaysia, high-rise residential building has become a trend in the recent years. However, in designing and constructing these buildings, safety considerations have not received adequate attention. This study aims to examine the causes of children falling from high-rise buildings, while the nature and frequencies of such accidents were also investigated. The paper is based on the existing literature, as well as feedbacks from questionnaires and interviews. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach within Multi-criteria Decision Analysis was adopted for the analysis undertaken in this study. The outcome reveals that accidents involving child falls can be prevented by establishing appropriate policies and regulations. The strict enforcement of safety laws and regulations will help to avoid untoward accidents and dispel negative thoughts about living in high-rise buildings. The findings elaborate on the ranking of elements that influence child safety in high-rise apartments.

The Beast in the Closet: Interrogating the Trauma of Sibling Incest in Emma Donoghue’s Neo-Victorian Novel The Wonder

Emma Donoghue’s neo-Victorian novel The Wonder (2016) is a remarkable exploration of the Victorian era’s indifference towards the issues of woman and child safety against the heinous crimes of sexual abuse. The horror of sibling incest, which eventually develops the sense of guilt within the protagonist and gradually isolates her from the entire extrinsic world, has been taken into consideration for the analysis of the unusual narratives of tremendous shock and trauma that the novel enterprises. The paper examines incest as a trope for inflicting everlasting trauma and seeks to locate if amelioration is at all achievable for the abused ‘body’. The intended study further interrogates the placid indifference of the contemporaneous behavioural patterns of the societal institutional bodies of family, religion, and law, while encountering the forever forbidden taboo of incest.

Beyond Short-Term Learning Gains: The Impact of Outsourcing Schools in Liberia After Three Years

Outsourcing the management of ninety-three randomly-selected government primary schools in Liberia to eight private operators led to learning gains of .18σ after one year, but these effects plateaued in subsequent years (reaching .2σ after three years). Beyond learning gains, the program reduced corporal punishment (by 4.6 percentage points from a base of 51%), but increased dropout (by 3.3 percentage points from a base of 15%) and failed to reduce sexual abuse. Despite facing similar contracts and settings, some providers produced uniformly positive results, while others present trade-offs between learning gains, access to education, child safety, and financial sustainability.

Knowledge and Practice of Mothers Regarding Child Safety at Home among Under Five Children and Its Correlation with Sociodemographic Details

Background: Young children are prone for accidental injuries in the home environment and these injuries can be easily prevented by better supervision and improving safety in the home. Objectives: The aim of the study is to assess the knowledge and practice of mothers regarding child safety in under five children at home and its correlation with sociodemographic details. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital at Kancheepuram. The duration of the study was 2 months. Mothers with at least one child under 5 years of age who visited the pediatrics outpatient department during the study period were included in the study. The sample size was 160. After obtaining approval from the institutional review board (approval no SMC/IEC/2021/03/046) a self designed and validated questionnaire was administered to the participants after obtaining consent. The data was entered into an excel sheet and analysed using SPSS 24. Results: A total of 160 mothers of under five children who visited the outpatient department of pediatrics during the study period were included in the study. The mean age of mothers was 25 years. 73.12% of mothers who participated in the study had adequate knowledge about child safety at home and 53.12% mothers had adequate practice. The association of knowledge towards child safety at home and mothers’ education was statistically significant (P = 0.006). Graduate mothers were found to have more knowledge regarding child safety at home among under five children than mothers educated upto middle school and high school. The association of practice towards child safety and type of family was found to be statistically significant (P = 0.016). Mothers belonging to joint families were found to have better practices towards child safety than mothers belonging to nuclear and three generation families. 65% of the mothers stated that their child has suffered from home injuries earlier including minor and major injuries. 41.8% of mothers said that they have a first aid kit at home. Conclusion: Although most of the mothers had adequate knowledge towards child safety at home among under five children, half of the mothers lacked adequate practice towards child safety. Hence it is essential to counsel and educate mothers to improve practices at home that would be beneficial in improving child safety.

Online Child Safety

This chapter looks at the history and development of online child safety and how industry and regulatory responses have evolved. It shows how the agenda broadened from an initial focus largely on child abuse images (child pornography) and paedophile behaviour through to wider concerns such as age-inappropriate content, including legal pornography and violent or extremist materials. There is also a discussion of how technologies are having an impact on the overall quality of children’s lives. Children’s rights online, bullying, privacy, self-harm, and self-generated sexualized pictures and videos are now considered mainstream matters by those engaged with children’s welfare.