Objective: To examine effects of televised safety models on children's will
ingness to take physical risks and their ability to identify injury hazards
in common situations.
Methods: Sixty children, between the ages of five and eight years, were exp
osed to one of three TV stimulus programs: (1) a safety educational videota
pe, in which actors engaged in dangerous behavior, suffered injuries, and t
hen enacted alternative safe behaviors; (2) an animated cartoon, which port
rayed characters engaged in safety behaviors incidental to the main story l
ine; or (3) the same cartoon program edited to omit the scenes depicting sa
fety behavior. Children's willingness to take physical risks was measured b
efore and after the TV stimulus by a series of pictorial child-relevant sce
narios in which they could indicate the level of risk they would take. They
also completed pretest and posttest measures of hazard identification, in
which they were to identify injury hazards in several pictorial scenarios.
Results: Exposure to the safety educational videotape decreased children's
willingness to take physical risks and increased their identification of in
jury hazards. Exposure to the animated cartoon with incidental safety compo
nents did not affect risk taking, but did increase ability to identify haza
rds.
Conclusions: Findings are interpreted as evidence of observational learning
and priming of thematically related knowledge by the television stimuli. I
mplications for safety educational curricula are discussed.