Stress genitoriale e propensione agli incidenti nei figli

Parenting stress and injury behavior in children. Studies on child injury behavior highlighted the role of age and gender differences and the importance of sensation seeking in injury risk. There is poor research about parents influence on child injury behavior, mainly about educational practices and child monitoring and supervision. Furthermore, parenting stress is a significant variable either as educational styles mediator or for its direct effect on child development and psychological adjustment, but it hasn t been related to children s proneness to unintentional injuries. The aim of this study was to verify the relation between child injury behavior, internalizing and externalizing behaviors, sensation seeking and parenting stress, with particular interest in analyzing whether parenting stress could predict a greater proneness to unintentional injuries in children and preadolescents. Gender differences were also taken into account. Participants were 211 mothers and 211 fathers with children aged between 8 and 12 (98 males and 113 females). Parents were asked to complete Injury Behavior Checklist, Child Behavior Checklist 4/18 and Parenting Stress Index- SF. Children were asked to complete the Sensation Seeking Scale. Results highlighted that children and preadolescents at lower risk of unintentional injuries were females, reporting minor internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and had parents with null or low stress levels. On the contrary, subjects at greater risk were males, with externalizing behaviors, and had mothers with high levels of parenting stress. Sensation seeking wasn t a significant dimension in predicting injury behavior either in males or in females. Moreover, only in the male sample did externalizing behaviors mediate the relationship between children s disposition to injury and mothers stress, caused by the perception of having a difficult child. In the female sample, instead, mothers overall stress had a direct influence on daughters injury behavior.