The following abstracts are examples of some of the literature supporting the role and potential of behavioral science and health education in unintentional injury prevention and control.  These examples were chosen because they demonstrate useful applications of behavioral science and health education to the prevention of unintentional injuries in a variety of settings. For more information about a specific study or intervention, please refer to the original journal article.

CDC is compiling a more comprehensive bibliography on behavioral science in unintentional injury prevention that will be available soon. If you have any articles or publications that you would like to be sure are included in this bibliography, please send them to:  David Sleet, Ph.D. or Krista Hopkins, MPH at 4770 Buford Highway, NE, MS-K63, Atlanta, GA  30341.

Gielen AC, Dannenberg AL, Ashburn N, Kou J.  Teaching safety: Evaluation of a children's village in Maryland.  Injury Prevention 1996;2(1):26-31.

Authors evaluated Children's Village, a life safety education facility for children in a rural county of Maryland.  Children's Village worked extensively with community leaders, parents, and teachers dedicated to the safety education of children.  The curriculum increased children's knowledge about injuries, and to a lesser degree, parents' knowledge of safety practices.  The program's impact could be enhanced with more emphasis on automobile restraints and bicycle helmets.

Bablouzian L, Freedman ES, Wolski KE, Fried LE.  Evaluation of a community based childhood injury prevention program.  Injury Prevention 1997;3(1):14-6.

This study evaluated a community-based childhood injury prevention program designed to reduce home hazards.  Pregnant women who were classified as high-risk and enrolled in a home visit program received initial home safety assessments, information about childhood injuries and safety supplies.  The intervention significantly reduced four home hazards, and increased use of child restraint devices in automobiles.

Peterson L, Saldana L.  Accelerating children's risk for injury: Mothers' decisions regarding common safety rules.  Journal of Behavioral Medicine 1996;19(4):317-31.

Authors studied parents' application of safety rules, their consistency with those rules, and the consequences of inconsistency.  Data suggest that rules may have preventative properties, with the number of rules being negatively related to the number of injuries.  This article underlined the understanding of how effective rules may or may not be in preventing injuries and described future research challenges.

Morrongiello BA, Bradley MDM.  Sibling power: Influence of older siblings' persuasive appeals on younger siblings' judgements about risk-taking behaviors.  Injury Prevention  1997;3(1):23-8.

Forty same-sex sibling pairs (age 7-8 and 10-11) were chosen to study the effects of older siblings' persuasive appeals on younger siblings' risk-taking behaviors.  The role of the older child was to try to change their younger sibling's decision to take or avoid risks in three visual scenarios related to bicycling, outdoor water play, and sledding.  Results showed that persuasive arguments by older children significantly influenced younger children to change their risk decisions -- both from high risk to low risk and vice versa.