Stranger-Danger: What do Children Know?

✍ Scribed by Ellen Moran; David Warden; Lindsey Macleod; Gillian Mayes; John Gillies

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 215 KB
• Volume: 6
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0952-9136
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0852(199703)6:1<11::aid-car286>3.0.co;2-g

✦ Synopsis

Stranger-Danger: What do Children Know?

The current practice in many schools of educating children on how to keep themselves safe from abuse and abduction tends to concentrate on teaching them about stranger-danger and how to avoid it. However, recent research suggests that children may have diculty in understanding the stranger-danger message (Mayes, . The present study examines 6-, 8-and 10-year-old children's understanding of the concepts of stranger' and danger' by analysing their verbal responses to videotaped sequences depicting child encounters with a variety of known and unknown male adults. Results indicate that, although there is some evidence of developing wariness, children at ages 8 and even 10 years appear still to be vulnerable to approaches made by strangers. *