The social context of childhood injury in Canada: integration of the NLSCY findings.

OBJECTIVE To integrate findings from cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of the relationships between childhood injury, child behavior, parenting, family functioning and neighborhood characteristics. METHODS Logistic modeling of cross-sectional (n = 12,666) and longitudinal (n = 9796) data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. RESULTS Consistent correlates of childhood injury across designs included child's age, gender, difficult temperament, aggressive behavior, positive parenting, neighbors' cohesion, neighborhood problems, and socioeconomic disadvantage. CONCLUSION Contextual influences on childhood injury vary by child's age, temperament and behavior. In early childhood, neighborhood processes of cohesion show protective effects. For older children, neighborhood disadvantage dominates the risk of injuries.