Predictors of Children’s Risk Appraisals

This study explored variables associated with cognitive appraisals of physical risk in a sample of 62 elementary school children. Participants were presented with drawings of persons in three categories of risky situations typical of children, typical of adults, and typical of television plots. They were asked to judge the potential for physical injury in each. Results indicated that children tended to appraise risks in child, adult, and TV-plot risk situations differently, and that each type of situation was predicted by different variables. For the child situations, greater amounts of direct experience with the risk situation itself was found to be associated with lower risk appraisals. Appraisals of adult risk situations were predicted by age, with older children reporting lower risk appraisals. Sensation seeking, injury history, and weekday cartoon viewing all predicted lower risk appraisals of television situations. Implications of these fi ndings for knowledge about the origins of childhood injury are discussed. Unintentional injury has been cited as the leading cause of death each year among children between one and 19 years of age (Rodriguez, 1990). The personal and fi nancial costs of childhood injury and disability are devastating. Each year 600,000 children are hospitalized, 16 million receive emergency care, and 30,000 suffer permanent disability as a result of unintentional injury (Rodriguez, 1990). The estimated fi nancial cost of injury and disability in the U.S. is $158 billion annually (Rice & Mackenzie, 1989). Figures such as these prompted the National Academy of Sciences to conclude that “injury is the principle public health problem in America today; it affects primarily the young and will touch one of every three Americans this year” (National Academy of Sciences, 1985, p. v). Despite the magnitude of the problem and repeated calls for additional research (e.g., Spielberger & Frank, 1992; Routh, 1997), relatively few studies have explored potential behavioral and psychological mechanisms that may underlie children’s unintentional injuries. Particularly understudied has been children’s internal processing of physically risky situations. For instance, antecedent affective and cognitive responses to physical risks may impact the extent to which injury occurs. In the face of potentially dangerous situations, these reactions may infl uence children’s decisions whether to take risks that could