Mom or Dad Says I Shouldn't: Supervised and Unsupervised Children's Knowledge of Their Parents' Rules for Home Safety

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Abstract
Parents and their 8- to 10-year-old children completed matched questionnaires that inquired about what at-home problems were important and worrisome, asked about what rules parents had generated concerning potential problem situations, and suggested several rules that parents and children might or might not adhere to, asking for acceptance or rejection of these rules. The parents' responses to a written questionnaire showed that the parents rated emergency situations, encounters with strangers, play location, etc., as presenting important and worrisome problems, that they had formulated multiple rules concerning their children's behavior in these situations, and that they believed their children were aware of these rules. However, the children's oral responses to the questionnaire indicated clearly that children who were left unsupervised once, two to three times, or more than four times a week, as well as children who were never left alone, were largely unaware of their parents' rules. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for child accident prevention, child health, and child home security.

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