Fire Messaging: a qualitative exploration of how adults teach children about fire

Faye Horsley*, Emily Birrell, Grace Gouldthorp, Danisha Kohli, Faith McLackland, Ellie Taylor

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

Purpose
Research indicates that children’s early experience of fire can influence what and how they learn about fire. In turn, early fire-learning can influence how people come to use it later in life, including whether they engage in maladaptive use, i.e. firesetting. Little is known about the underlying mechanisms of fire-learning, which was the basis for this study. The research question was: “how do adults educate children about fire in the UK/ Ireland”? The purpose of this study was to explore the child fire education process from an adult perspective.

Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews was conducted with 21 fire-educators who had regular contact with children. Data was analysed using abbreviated grounded theory. Steps were taken to ensure reliability and validity, including a Cohen’s Kappa calculation, indicating an agreement level of 0.9 between two raters.

Findings
Four core themes were identified: the fire narrative, enabling growth, risk management, and communication, from which the fire-learning process model (F-LPM) was formed.

Research limitations/implications
The main limitation is the nature of the sample, in that it was diverse and self-selecting.

Practical implications
The findings are discussed, including how they offer support for social learning theory (SLT) perspectives on fire-learning.

Social implications
The social construction of fire (i.e. the way fire is viewed by society as a whole in the UK/ Ireland) is discussed in depth, and cultural variability is highlighted. Suggestions are made for how the societal view of fire and, consequently, how adults convey this to young people, could be better balanced.

Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in the UK/ Ireland to consider how adults educate young people about fire from a concurrent perspective. This is important given that research indicates early experiences of fire can impact how people later go on to use it (including maladaptive use in the form of firesetting).
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)153-165
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Criminological Research, Policy and Practice
Volume10
Issue number3/4
Early online date26 Sept 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Nov 2024

Keywords

  • Fire-learning
  • Fire-education
  • Forensic psychology
  • Qualitative
  • Arson
  • Grounded theory
  • Firesetting

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