TITLE:
A Theoretical Knowledge of Interpersonal Safety Skills Is Not Related to Children’s Ability to Protect Themselves in Real-Life Situations
AUTHORS:
Athanasia Dampa, Paraskevi Giagazoglou
KEYWORDS:
Dangerous Situation, Lure, Self-Protection Skills, Stranger, Safety Knowledge
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.14 No.7,
July
24,
2023
ABSTRACT: Many young children while stating that they would never follow a
stranger, in fact they do so when this person is appearing by an “attractive
lure”, such as a toy, sweet or presented as a friend with the teacher or
parent. The aim of the present study was to assess preschooler’s (total N = 555) knowledge of interpersonal
safety skills and their ability to recognize and react properly in
hypothetically unsafe situations. The assessment of safety skills was done
through the Observed protective behaviors test (OPBT; White et
al., 2015) which was designed to assess children’s ability to implement protective behaviors
knowledge and through a realistic test. The realistic test that took place
before the personal interview with the children, took the form of a social
experiment in order to assess the children’s willingness to follow an unknown
young woman who tried to lure them by candy or a toy. The results indicated
that more than the 2/3 of the participants were lured by the stranger in the
condition of a real-world setting, whereas they had knowledge about
self-protection skills or not. This means that even when the children knew what
the correct answer to give to a possible situation of danger it was not always
possible to “convey” the specific knowledge into a correct reaction in a
real-life situation. In conclusion, the findings of the present study provide
evidence regarding the development of appropriate educational programs, so as
to ensure children’s safety.