PERCEIVED SOCIAL NORMS AS CRUCIAL DETERMINANTS OF MOTHERS INJURY-PREVENTIVE BEHAVIOR

In order to design injury-preventive programmes aimed at parents, an u nderstanding of injury-preventive behaviour is essential. Questionnair es were obtained from 870 mothers of 3, 4 and 9-year-olds. The perceiv ed social norm and other determinants for injury-preventive behaviour were analysed using three multivariate logistic regression models. The final logistic models classified 73.2-82.7% of respondents correctly. Perceived norms of relatives and friends were found to be the most im portant determinants of mothers' injury-preventive behaviour. Injury-p reventive behaviour could neither be explained by mother's perception of injury risks, nor by the perceived norms of professionals within ch ild health care and schools. This study indicates that in order to des ign injury-prevention programmes, an understanding of social norms is crucial.