Understanding unintentional injury-risk in young children I. The nature and scope of caregiver supervision of children at home.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the supervision that young children routinely receive when awake and at home with a parent.
METHODS: Mothers were trained to complete continuous recordings about supervision of their young child (2-5 years) when at home on each of 10 randomly selected days within a 3-week period.
RESULTS: Children were supervised more often than unsupervised but were completely out of view of supervisors about 20% of their awake time, and supervision was poorer when out of view of supervisors. Older children (4-5 years) were unsupervised (8% of awake time) more often than younger children (2-3 years; 1%), were more often out of view of supervisors than younger children, and received poorer supervision than younger children when out of view of supervisors. Few sex differences were found.
CONCLUSIONS: These data provide insights into the nature and scope of supervision that young children routinely experience when at home. Implications of these findings for identifying patterns of supervision that elevate children's risk of injury are discussed.