Empowering Preschool Children With Personal Safety Skills

Empowering Preschool Children With Personal Safety Skills: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Multiple Intelligences-Based Education Program

Preschool children are vulnerable to preventable accidents due to limited hazard awareness. This randomized controlled study evaluated the effectiveness of a Multiple Intelligences Theory-based Personal Safety Education Program (MIT-based PSEP) on preschool children's safety knowledge and skills. Sixty children aged 4-5 years were randomly assigned to an intervention group (n=30) or a control group (n=30). The intervention group received eight interactive MIT-based sessions, while the control group received routine education. Data were collected pre- and post-intervention using the Personal Safety and First Aid Subscale and analyzed with mixed-design ANOVA.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Safety; Education, Nursing; Self Administration; Education Entertainment Intervention; Preschool Age Children
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Multiple Intelligences Theory-Based Personal Safety Education Program (PSEP)

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 60
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Turkey (Türkiye)
  • Karabük, Turkey (Türkiye), 78000
    • Karabuk University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Children aged 4-5 years enrolled in the participating preschool
• Ability to speak and understand Turkish
• Written informed consent obtained from parents/legal guardians
• Availability of a parent/legal guardian to complete the outcome questionnaires at baseline and post-intervention

Exclusion Criteria:

• Children aged 3 years
• Children with incomplete baseline or post-intervention outcome data
• Parents/legal guardians who did not return the questionnaires at baseline or post-intervention

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Triple

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention Group: Multiple Intelligences Theory-Based Personal Safety Education Program; Children in this arm received a Multiple Intelligences Theory-based Personal Safety Education Program (MIT-based PSEP) tailored for 4-5-year-old preschool children. The program consists of eight interactive sessions (15-20 minutes each) delivered over 5 weeks (two sessions per week). The intervention incorporates activities addressing multiple intelligence domains (verbal/linguistic, bodily-kinesthetic, visual-spatial, interpersonal, and musical), including games, drama, movement-based activities, music, visual materials, and coloring/design tasks. The program aims to improve children's personal safety knowledge and skills, including safe play and bicycle use, prevention of home accidents, recognizing hazards, protection from strangers, knowing what to do when lost, and sun safety.	Behavioral: Multiple Intelligences Theory-Based Personal Safety Education Program (PSEP); Children in the intervention arm received a Multiple Intelligences Theory-based Personal Safety Education Program (MIT-based PSEP) consisting of eight interactive sessions (15-20 minutes each) delivered over 5 weeks (two sessions per week). The program used multi-modal activities (games, drama, movement, music, visual materials, and coloring/design tasks) addressing multiple intelligence domains (verbal/linguistic, bodily-kinesthetic, visual-spatial, interpersonal, and musical). The content targeted personal safety knowledge and skills, including safe play and bicycle use, prevention of home accidents, recognizing hazards, protection from strangers, knowing what to do when lost, and sun safety. The intervention was delivered in small classroom groups by a trained child development specialist in collaboration with a pediatric nursing researcher.
No Intervention: Control Group: Usual Preschool Education; Children in this arm received no additional intervention during the study period and continued with the school's usual preschool curriculum. No specific personal safety or first aid education was delivered as part of the study. Pre-test and post-test assessments were completed by parents using standardized questionnaires.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Health Education Scale- Personal Safety and First Aid Subscale (PSFAS) Score	Health Education Scale: Developed by Aydos (2013), this scale assesses preschool children's knowledge and skills in health education. The scale consists of six subscales: Personal Safety and First Aid (25 items, Cronbach's α = .945), Hygiene and Self-Care (26 items, α = .934), Nutrition (20 items, α = .936), Sleep (7 items, α = .885), Mental Health and Social Relationships (20 items, α = .934), and Neglect and Abuse (19 items, α = .941). All items are rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale, with higher scores indicating greater knowledge and skills. In the present study, only the Personal Safety and First Aid Subscale (PSFAS) was used to assess children's personal safety knowledge and first aid skills. The PSFAS consists of 25 parent-reported items, and total scores range from 25 to 125. Higher scores indicate greater levels of personal safety and first-aid knowledge and skills. The primary outcome of the study was the change in children's personal safety knowledge and skills.	Baseline (pre-intervention) and 4 weeks after completion of the intervention (post-intervention)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Karabuk University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 18, 2024
• Primary Completion (Actual): May 14, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): June 18, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 28, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 4, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): March 6, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 4, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 14, 2026
• Last Verified: March 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: preschool children; education program; knowledge and skills; personal safety; multiple intelligence theory
• Other Study ID Numbers: E-36771699-302.08.01-380832; Bulent Ecevit University (Other Identifier: Bulent Ecevit University Human Research Ethics Committee)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: Not planned. De-identified individual participant data will not be made publicly available. Aggregate results were shared with the Ministry of National Education upon institutional request and approval. Data sharing is restricted due to ethical and data protection considerations.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No