Dijo mi madre: Examining the relationship between Mexican American culture, acculturation, parenting and pediatric unintentional injury

According to the World Health Organization (WHO;2008), one child every hour and approximately 20 children a day die in the United States from a preventable injury (CDC, 2006 & National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC; 2012). Pediatric unintentional injury is a severe and complex problem. Although there exists an abundance of research examining this phenomenon within the Caucasian population, less is known about the injury risks of Latino/a children. Studies investigating pediatric injury rates of Latino children have found a positive relationship between maternal acculturation levels and child injury (Anderson et al., 1998; Schwebel, Brezausek, Ramey, & Ramey, 2005; Vaughan et al., 2004). Therefore, in order to further injury prevention research, the current study examined the role of maternal acculturation and parenting practices on children's risk-taking behaviors and risk for sustaining unintentional injuries. Participants included 65 children ages 5-8 and their mothers. Mothers completed demographic, acculturation, supervision, cultural and injury measures. Additionally, mothers and children participated in an observational measure of parenting practices in their homes.;The results of the present study indicate that acculturation is associated with children's risk-taking behaviors that may lead to injury ( r = .25, p < .05). Among the parenting variables examined, only demandingness was found to be related to risk taking behaviors (r = .25, p <.01). The present study did not find a relationship between supervision and injury risk. However, a relationship was found between supervision and acculturation (r = -.30, p < .05). While warmth, demandingess, and supervision were all identified as potential moderators impacting this relationship, none were found to moderate the relationship between acculturation and injury. Potential significance and explanations for these findings are discussed.