Summer Safety for 'Tweens' Home Alone
Vol. 4, Issue 1; June 9, 2008
Report Highlights
- Nearly two-thirds of parents of "tweens" (age 11-13) have left them home alone for 1-2 hours.
- 1 out of 5 parents have left tweens home alone for an entire day.
- Over one-quarter of parents have not talked "a lot" with their tweens about neighborhood, Internet or home safety.
- Parents have more confidence in their tweens' ability to follow guidelines for gun and fire safety than for Internet or storm safety.
School is out, and millions of "tweens" (children age 11-13) will be left home alone by their parents for a couple hours, an afternoon or even the entire day. Leaving tweens home alone allows them to gain independence, but also presents unique challenges for parents.
There are no formal guidelines for parents to follow when it comes to leaving tweens at home by themselves. Because leaving tweens home alone is a common challenge for parents, the goal of this poll was to ask parents what they think is an appropriate age to leave a child home alone, how often they leave their children home alone, how much have they talked about safety issues, and how confident they are that their children will follow basic safety rules.
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This Report includes research findings from the C.S. Mott Children's National Poll on Children's Health, which do not represent the opinions of the investigators or the opinions of the University of Michigan. The University of Michigan reserves all rights over this material.
