Author(s)

Athanasia Dampa, Paraskevi Giagazoglou

Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Serres, Greece.

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.

Dangerous Situation, Lure, Self-Protection Skills, Stranger, Safety Knowledge

Dampa, A. and Giagazoglou, P. (2023) A Theoretical Knowledge of Interpersonal Safety Skills Is Not Related to Children’s Ability to Protect Themselves in Real-Life Situations. Creative Education, 14, 1411-1420. doi: 10.4236/ce.2023.147089.