Gaps in Childhood Injury Research and Prevention: What Can Developmental Scientists Contribute?

Unintentional injury is the leading cause of pediatric mortality in most of the developed world. Contributions from epidemiology, pubic health, and engineering perspectives have yielded important insights into risk and protective factors, but recent calls for research stress the need for behavioral science to advance understanding and prevention of childhood injuries. Limiting its focus to children younger than 13 years, this article identifies 4 gaps in the literature on childhood injury and discusses how developmental science might address these research needs by (a) applying developmental theory and conceptual approaches to understand the processes by which children are injured, (b) examining the role of developmental processes in injury risk, (c) identifying the bases for group differences in injury related to gender and cultural influences, and (d) exploring how family processes and relationships affect injury risk.