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Children's overestimation of their physical abilities: links to injury proneness
Book chapter

Children's overestimation of their physical abilities: links to injury proneness

Jodie M Plumert
Development of Movement Coordination in Children, pp.40-51
Routledge
2003
DOI: 10.4324/9780203389669-11

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Abstract

Promoting children's safety and health are concerns shared by paediatricians, developmental psychologists, and educators. Injury prevention clearly plays an integral role in children's health, as unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death in children under age 18 (Rodriguez and Brown, 1990; Singh and Yu, 1996). Approximately 22,000 children die each year in the U.S. as a result of drowning, poisoning, choking on foreign objects, automobile and bicycle collisions, pedestrian injuries, electrocutions, bums, or falls. The alarming statistics on children's injuries have led to a number of investigations by researchers in a variety of fields on issues such as pedestrian safety (Christoffel et aI., 1986; Connelly et al., 1998; Dunne, Asher, and Rivara, 1992; Lee et at., 1984), childhood drowning (Nixon et at., 1986), bicycling safety (Langley et at., 1983), and children's ability to operate motorised vehicles (Pick et at., 1987). Although overviews of strategies for reducing childhood injury have called for a better understanding of the underlying factors that contribute to the occurrence of injuries (Brooks and Roberts, 1990; Peterson and Mori, 1985; Roberts, 1986), little is yet known about how developmental changes in cognitive and perceptual skills contribute to unsafe behaviour.

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