Learning Objective #1: Understand the factors affecting supervision of children, which is critical to issues related to prevention of childhood injuries

Learning Objective #2: Understand the different research tools utilized to study maternal supervision related to childhood injuries

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Abstract. Objective: To examine the relationship between maternal socioeconomic and psychological resources and reported supervision of 3 year-old children. Design / Setting / Participants: A descriptive prospective longitudinal study including a sample of 289 mothers and their 3 year-old children. Participants were recruited from 4 pediatric practices in Rochester NY from September 2002 to November 2003 and stratified to adequately represent poor, non-poor and majority, minority families. Main outcome measures: Supervision was measured as unsupervised time in minutes for 4 different levels of environmental risk: low-risk situations at home (living room/bedroom), medium-risk situations at home (bathroom/garage/kitchen), low-risk situations outside (sidewalk) and yard (driveway). Measures of maternal socioeconomic resources included maternal age, education, income, ethnicity and family structure. Measures of maternal psychological resources included maternal depression, fatigue and pain. Results: Maternal socioeconomic resources were found to influence maternal supervision in medium-risk situations at home. Maternal psychological resources were found to influence maternal supervision in low-risk situations. Mothers with higher education and income tended to leave their children unsupervised for a longer period of time in medium-risk environments at home. Mothers with higher levels of depression, fatigue and pain tended to leave their children unsupervised for a longer period of time in low-risk environments at home and outside. Conclusion: Our results indicate an interesting separation among the factors relating with supervision of 3 year-old children. It appears that maternal socioeconomic factors influence the level of maternal supervision related with hazardous environments, such as bathroom, garage, kitchen at home but do not influence supervision related with low-risk environments. In contrast, maternal psychological resources, maternal depression, fatigue and pain appear to have an effect on supervision related to low-risk environments only.