Bosshart Noah, Bearth Angela, Wermelinger Stephanie, Daum Moritz, Siegrist Michael
Consumer Behavior, Institute for Environmental Decisions (IED), ETH Zurich (ETHZ), Switzerland.
Consumer Behavior, Institute for Environmental Decisions (IED), ETH Zurich (ETHZ), Switzerland.
J Safety Res. 2022 Dec;83:400-409. doi: 10.1016/j.jsr.2022.09.015. Epub 2022 Oct 4.
Children who encounter household chemicals run the risk of unintentional injury. The aim of this study was to understand which factors heighten children's attention or misguide their decision-making concerning household chemicals. We hypothesized that certain product attributes (i.e., label, packaging, closure types), storage context, and parental beliefs play a role in this setting.
We conducted a laboratory study with N = 114 children (M = 45 months, SD = 6.5) and their parents (M = 38 years, SD = 4.92). Children completed a series of behavioral tasks in which they had to choose between products with different attributes, identify products in different storage contexts, and sort household chemicals.
The results confirmed that the children preferred products with cartoon-style labels compared to products without such labels. However, children's decision-making did not differ for products with different closure types (child-resistant vs sprayer-type closures). Regarding the storage context, our results showed that the children particularly struggled to identify dishwashing tabs when they were stored with other food items rather than household chemicals. In terms of parental beliefs, our study found that parents rated more household chemicals as child-safe than their children did.
Parents should buy household chemicals with neutral labels and pay attention to how their household chemicals are stored. Manufacturers should consider potential adverse effects when developing new product designs.
接触家用化学品的儿童存在意外伤害风险。本研究的目的是了解哪些因素会提高儿童对家用化学品的关注度或误导他们在这方面的决策。我们假设某些产品属性（即标签、包装、封闭类型）、储存环境和父母的观念在这种情况下会起到作用。
我们对114名儿童（平均年龄45个月，标准差6.5）及其父母（平均年龄38岁，标准差4.92）进行了一项实验室研究。儿童完成了一系列行为任务，在这些任务中，他们必须在具有不同属性的产品之间进行选择，识别不同储存环境中的产品，并对家用化学品进行分类。
结果证实，与没有此类标签的产品相比，儿童更喜欢带有卡通风格标签的产品。然而，对于具有不同封闭类型（儿童安全型与喷雾型封闭）的产品，儿童的决策没有差异。关于储存环境，我们的结果表明，当洗碗片与其他食品而非家用化学品一起储存时，儿童特别难以识别。在父母观念方面，我们的研究发现，父母认为比儿童认为更多的家用化学品对儿童是安全的。
父母应购买带有中性标签的家用化学品，并注意其家用化学品的储存方式。制造商在开发新产品设计时应考虑潜在的不利影响。
