The influence of peers on children's judgments about engaging in behaviors that threaten their safety

Unintentional injuries are the number one cause of death among children beyond one year of age. Many injuries among school-age children happen when they are away from home and in the company of peers. The aim in this study was to examine peer influences on children's judgments about engaging in behaviors that threaten their physical safety. Children were shown pictures depicting play situations which involved different paths of travel, each of which posed different degrees of injury risk. Children were asked to select the path they would take, and to assign a danger rating to reflect their beliefs about the likelihood of injury along this path. A peer-influence session followed, in which a same-sex friend attempted to persuade the child to take another path. Following exposure to the friend's arguments, children made their final decision about a path of travel in each play situation; the peer was not present during this decision and the experimenter present was unaware of the child's initial path choice. A number of other measures were taken in an effort to determine factors that influence children's risk-taking decisions. Results revealed that friends were successful in their persuasion efforts: for two of the three play situations, a significant number of children who initially selected low-risk paths switched to more risky paths. Appraisal of danger related to initial path decisions, but number of hazards identified and injury history did not significantly relate to initial decisions. The implications of these results for our understanding of injury-outcome processes are discussed.