Accidental ingestion of poisons and child personality

Abstract

The personality of 105 children under 5 years of age admitted to Cardiff Hospital was compared with 105 control children by means of a semantic differential test. Poisoning-children were significantly more anxious (P < 0·008), harder (P < 0·01), and more active (P < 0·04) than controls. They also caused more worry (P < 0·04) and put other than food more often in their mouths (P < 0·002). There were no significant differences in the age of walking, and the ages of becoming clean and dry between cases and controls. However, poisoningchildren had significantly more accidents and hospital admissions than did controls. The relevance of these findings, particularly in relation to the important role of family stress, to the aetiology of accidental poisoning in childhood is discussed.