Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture, College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
PLoS One. 2018 Jun 13;13(6):e0198796. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0198796. eCollection 2018.
Children living on farms experience exceptionally high risks for traumatic injury. There is a large body of epidemiological research documenting this phenomenon, yet few complementary studies that have explored the deep underlying reasons for such trends. Fundamental to this is understanding the decision-making processes of parents surrounding their choice to bring children, or not, into the farm worksite.
To (1) document farm parent views of the risks and benefits of raising children on a family farm, and, (2) understand more deeply why children are brought into the farm worksite.
Interviews were conducted as part of a larger cohort study, The Saskatchewan Farm Injury Cohort. Subsequent to an initial mail-out question focused on parental decision-making, 11 semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with rural Saskatchewan farm parents. Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim, then thematically analyzed using interpretive description methodology.
This parental decision-making process on farms fundamentally involves weighing the risks vs. benefits of bringing children into the worksite, as if on a balance scale. One side of this scale holds potential risks such as exposure to physical and chemical farm hazards, in the absence of full supervision. The other side holds potential benefits such as meeting family needs for childcare, labour, and family time; building work ethic and pride; and the positive impacts of involvement and responsibility. Decision-making 'tips the scales', in part dependent upon parental perceptions of the risk-benefit trade-off. This 'perceptual lens' is influenced by factors such as: the agricultural way of life, parents' prior knowledge and past experience, characteristics of children, and safety norms.
This novel qualitative study provides deep insight into how Saskatchewan farm parents approach a fundamental decision-making process associated with their parenting. The proposed model provides insight into the etiology of pediatric farm injuries as well as their prevention.
生活在农场的儿童遭受创伤性伤害的风险极高。有大量的流行病学研究记录了这一现象，但很少有研究探讨导致这种趋势的深层次原因。理解父母在决定是否让孩子进入农场工作场所时的决策过程是至关重要的。
（1）记录农场家长对在家庭农场抚养孩子的风险和收益的看法，（2）更深入地了解为什么孩子会被带到农场工作场所。
访谈是作为一项更大的队列研究的一部分进行的，即萨斯喀彻温省农场伤害队列研究。在最初的邮件调查关注父母的决策之后，对 11 名萨斯喀彻温省农村农场家长进行了 11 次半结构化电话访谈。访谈进行了数字记录并逐字转录，然后使用解释性描述方法进行主题分析。
这种在农场的父母决策过程从根本上涉及到权衡将孩子带入工作场所的风险与收益，就像在天平上一样。天平的一边是在没有充分监督的情况下接触物理和化学农场危害等潜在风险。另一边是满足家庭对儿童保育、劳动力和家庭时间的需求、培养职业道德和自豪感以及参与和责任的积极影响等潜在收益。决策“使天平倾斜”，部分取决于父母对风险-收益权衡的看法。这种“感知视角”受到农业生活方式、父母的先前知识和以往经验、孩子的特征以及安全规范等因素的影响。
这项新颖的定性研究深入了解了萨斯喀彻温省农场家长如何处理与育儿相关的基本决策过程。所提出的模型为小儿农场伤害的病因学及其预防提供了深入的见解。
