Psychosomatic Medicine 15:349-353 (1953)
© 1953 American Psychosomatic Society

Age and Sex in Eye Injuries of Children

¹ Departments of Ophthalmology and Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana

The medical records of 218 children up to 15 years of age who had been admitted to a children's hospital because of eye injuries were reviewed, and the age and sex of each case recorded. For a control group, other-than-eye injuries were selected at random from the files of the same hospital without regard to type of injury, age, or sex. Injuries of all types were included in the control group in order to randomize the influence of any specific variables associated with any particular type of injury. Data pertaining to age and sex of the control cases were recorded. Correlations of eye injuries with age and sex were carried out by means of the chi-square test.

This investigation revealed two principal findings:

There was no age period in girls characterized by relatively more or less eye injuries than at other ages.

In comparison with other types of injuries and in comparison with girls, eye injuries were relatively more frequent in boys at ages 4 through 6 and 10 through 12.

Associated data indicate that these results in boys from 4 through 6 and 10 through 12 cannot be explained by assuming an increase in general activity, clumsiness, or play involving danger to the eye.

A possible explanation for the findings of the present study is age and sex differences in psychosexual development. Psychiatric investigation of children with eye injuries may ultimately provide the data upon which such psychodynamic formulations may be based.