Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Safety education--Iowa--Waterloo; Fire prevention--Study and teaching (Elementary)--Iowa--Waterloo; Fire prevention--Study and teaching (Elementary); Safety education; Iowa--Waterloo; Academic theses;

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of the Fire P.A.L.S. program on fire and life safety knowledge and behavioral intent of selected elementary school students in 2nd-5th grades. Specifically, a quasi-experimental research design was used to compare two groups of elementary students from two different elementary schools on the basis of their fire and life safety knowledge and behavioral intent. One group of students received the Fire P.A.L.S. program, while the other group did not. The dependent variables, fire and life safety knowledge and behavioral intent, were measured using a pre- and post-test questionnaire. The tests were administered to 165 students, respectively, at the beginning and end of the spring 2002 semester to both the experimental and the control group. The data collected were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The data were divided into subgroups, according to grade and gender for descriptive purposes. Between group and within group comparisons of the mean scores for knowledge and behavioral intent were made using appropriate t-test procedures. The findings of the study determined from pre-test results that the experimental and control groups showed no statistical difference in terms of fire and life safety knowledge and behavioral intent at the beginning of the study. An independent samples t-test was used to compare mean post-test scores of the experimental groups to those of the control group. For 2nd-3rd grade students, results indicated there were no significant differences between the experimental and the control group. However, the results for 4th5th grade students in the experimental group were significantly higher than scores for students in the control group. A paired samples t-test was used to examine within group differences between pre-test and post-test scores. A significant increase from pre-test and post-test in mean knowledge scores was observed among 2nd-3rd grade students in the experimental groups. The within groups t-tests revealed that 4th-5th grade students in the experimental group made significant gains in both fire and life safety knowledge and behavioral intent. It was concluded that the Fire P.A.L.S. unintentional injury prevention program was effective for increasing fire and life safety knowledge and intentions to behave in a safe and appropriate manner among elementary students in the 4th-5th grades. It was recommended that although a variety of factors influence one's knowledge and behavior, it is incumbent upon those responsible for providing health education programs to consider all feasible means to encourage the development of knowledge and healthy behaviors.

Year of Submission

2003

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

School of Health, Physical Education, and Leisure Services

First Advisor

Larry Hensley

Second Advisor

Dennis Cryer

Third Advisor

Michele Yehieli

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

2003

Object Description

1 PDF file (70 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Download

Comments?

Share

COinS