The role of impulsivity in children's estimation of physical ability: Implications for children's unintentional injury risk

Abstract

Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of pediatric mortality. One factor that appears to predict injury risk is children's overestimation of physical ability. Fifty-seven 6-year-olds judged their ability to complete basic physical tasks. Half the sample was required to wait 7 s before judging their ability; the other half was permitted to judge immediately. There were no differences in ability estimation accuracy between the 2 groups, suggesting that the institution of a forced decision latency does not increase children's ability estimation accuracy. Replicating previous work, children tended to overestimate their ability, and overestimation of ability was related to history of unintentional injury. Possible explanations for the null finding are offered, and implications to injury prevention and future research are discussed.