Which of the following statements about juvenile fire-setting are true? Threats of punishment are effective in stopping fire misuse.… A child who acts defiant or disrespectful when told about the consequences of playing with fire isn't getting the message.… If a child pays attention and seems contrite, the intervention worked.… Photos of burned houses or bedrooms are always an effective way to convince a child not to play with fire.

If you answered “none of the above,” you're right. Intervention has worked only if you've changed long-term behavior. A bad attitude doesn't prove the message isn't getting through, any more than outward politeness proves a scare tactic worked. A scared child may agree with everything you say, yet his long-term response may be to do a better job of hiding fire-setting in the future so he won't get yelled at again. And dramatic photos may be too traumatic for a child to accept, distracting attention away from the real message.

The consequences of failed prevention or intervention in juvenile fire-setting are serious. Every year children start some 71,000 fires, of which about 17,000 are in homes. One out of every eight residential fires started by a child injures or kills someone. Children's own misuse of fire is the number-one cause of fire-related deaths in children under the age of 5.

Fireproof Children/Prevention First, an international fire safety education and prevention center headquartered in Rochester, N.Y., has conducted extensive research into juvenile fire-setting over the past 20 years. In that time, we've learned that:

• Scare tactics can backfire.
• Fear reduces the ability to understand.
• Children should be told what we want them to do, not just what they shouldn't do.
• Immediate responses can be misleading.
• Opportunities for teachable moments come out of conversations, not lectures.

Fear interference

You might think there's no risk in using scare tactics, so you might as well try them. But for kids whose social or family issues show up as fire-setting behavior, the “scare” approach may stimulate the very behavior you're trying to prevent.

For example, studies of “Scared Straight” — type prison programs, which expose juvenile delinquents or pre-delinquents to prison life and interactions with prisoners, found that this type of intervention doesn't change long-term behavior and in some cases seemed to actually increase the likelihood of delinquency.

This blowback effect happens in many situations where fear is used to try to change behavior. Scare tactics designed to get people to stop smoking or to take steps to protect themselves from skin cancer, for instance, are often resisted because people feel that someone is trying to manipulate or threaten them. They react by becoming defiant (“You can't tell me what to do”), avoiding the message (“I don't want to hear about it”), or indulging in wishful thinking (“But that won't happen to me.”)

Far from providing motivation for understanding, fear actually interferes with learning. High levels of anxiety reduce the capacity to comprehend and process information.

Because fire is inherently threatening and frightening, both children and adults are likely to be anxious when it comes to discussing fire. There's definitely no need to sensationalize it. Further increasing their fear can cause people to withdraw from the subject — and from you.

What about photographs of burned houses or bedrooms? Those in fire service, who so often see firsthand the results of misuse of fire, naturally think, “If they could see the things I've seen, they would never even think of doing this.” While visual aids can be helpful for children who haven't seen the consequences of misusing fire, such images must be chosen carefully to be appropriate for the child's age, related to his or her own experience, and not too horrific.

For very young children, such pictures only scare without teaching a thing. They simply don't have the capacity to understand that a single match can burn down an entire house. One research study asked elementary school children what one match could burn up. All of the children understood that one match could burn up a piece of paper. But when asked about toys, furniture and houses, the youngest children were not so sure. When asked if a match could burn up a house, less than half of the 6-year-olds believed this could happen.

By about age 6, most children are able to understand consequences. The most effective way to use photographs in such cases is to tell a story of another child who played with fire in a similar way. For example, if the child with whom you're speaking experimented with matches in a bedroom, a photo of a burned mattress or closet can show the possible consequences of their actions. The child will be able to accept this, whereas more dramatic and traumatic photos may be rejected mentally. The point is not to scare, but to make consequences clear.

Research conducted by Fireproof Children with the Rochester (N.Y.) Fire Department from 1985 to 1993 found that nine out of 10 children involved in a reported fire incident were involved in only one. Once the consequences of their actions were clear, they didn't repeat the action.

It's helpful to compare this to attempts to get people to quit smoking by showing smokers pictures of cancer-ridden lungs. Studies have found that these images didn't get anyone to stop smoking. Instead, smokers simply adjusted their beliefs to their existing behavior. A smoker might tell himself: “That won't happen to me. I had an aunt who smoked all her life and lived to be 100. That's what will happen for me, too.”

Similarly, if the story you tell and the photographs you use aren't closely related to the child's own experience, she may well be thinking: “Well, that kid was stupid about playing with matches. But I'm smart, and won't let that happen. I can handle it.”

Positive actions

“I can handle it” is a rationale used often by children who are overconfident in their ability to control fire and the consequences of fire-setting. When we asked children if they felt they “could put out a small fire,” almost two out of every three 7-year-olds thought they could. In fact, more than 80% of children 10 or older were quite confident they could extinguish a small fire. Yet every firefighter knows just how quickly the fire from a single match or a lighter can spread and consume a house.

That's why in our workshops and through the play safe! be safe! classroom kit created by Bic Corp. we emphasize teaching kids that matches and lighters are adult tools only, and that they should tell a grown-up when they see such ignition materials left out. This not only teaches them not to even touch such materials, but gives them a positive action they can take.

One way to connect with kids about this is to mention a toy store with which they're familiar, then ask, “Can you buy matches or lighters there? Why not? Because those things aren't toys. They're for adults only, not for children.”

We've also found it effective to compare matches and lighters to other adult tools such as power tools. If asked to name some power tools in their household, most kids will eagerly list half a dozen. If you ask them if they're allowed to use those tools, they're just as quick to admit that they are not. Ignition materials are like power tools; they are for adults only.

Of course, it's also important that parents understand such materials should be kept out of sight and reach of children. Explain that most children naturally find fire attractive and that children's fire-setting is quite common. Fire is familiar to them from their daily life. When matches or lighters are left out, they can be an attraction to unsafe behavior. A comparison can be helpful here as well: If you wouldn't leave a loaded gun sitting on your dresser, that's not the place for a lighter either.

Misleading responses

Maybe you're thinking, “Positive reinforcement sounds great, but you haven't met the tough kids I work with.” Sometimes people think that the approach we're recommending doesn't work because a child still may seem defiant or disrespectful. But his attitude doesn't mean nothing is getting through.

Arnold Goldstein, a former gang member turned university professor, and his colleagues worked with some of the toughest kids imaginable — aggressive adolescents in urban high schools and juvenile detention centers — using role-playing and other positive methods to teach skills for dealing with provocation, confrontation and conflict. While less dramatic than “getting tough,” this approach significantly reduced recidivism and re-incarceration.

Studies have consistently found that positive approaches such as teaching interpersonal skills are the most effective in actually changing behavior, while shock incarceration and boot camps are the least effective.

“Getting tough,” if it means yelling and threatening, is really a reactive rather than proactive approach. It's letting the kid set the agenda rather than setting it yourself. It also doesn't impress them for long, if at all. They've probably been yelled at before.

With some kids, a highly restrictive and directed style may be most effective. But there is no way to readily identify those kids, and applying that style across the board can be disastrous.

Teachable moments

It's natural to wish for an easy, one-time inoculation against future fire-setting, and it's tempting to think that scare tactics will do the trick. But people are just more complex than that. Think about your own behavior. If you're a former smoker, it probably actually took you four or five serious attempts before quitting for good. Remember that when you're tempted to say, “I tried that once, and it didn't work.”

Follow-up and ongoing communication are needed to truly change behavior. Fortunately, the fire service has many opportunities to interact with kids and their parents in a positive way.

Look on every interaction as a teaching opportunity

Whether you're responding to a fire alarm, inspecting a building or installing a smoke detector, talk with people about ways to keep their families safe. Remind parents that matches and lighters should be kept out of sight and out of reach. Make sure the children know that these ignition materials are for adults only and that they should tell their parents right away if they find such things.

Visit your local school

Children are much more likely to listen to you if they get to know you. A visit doesn't always have to be a formal educational program. Stop by and read the children a story or share lunch with them. Children will look up to you and ask you questions. Answering them is a great opportunity to give them messages they'll remember.

Be visible

Get out and introduce yourself. Encourage neighbors, especially families with children, to visit the fire station. When you interact at times other than an emergency, you develop relationships that make both children and adults more open to education.

When it comes to protecting children, their families and their neighborhoods, we all want to do what's most effective. Repeated brief, positive communication is the most effective way to change behavior in the long run. Scare tactics really just scare people away — from you, and from the information you're trying to give them to keep them safe.

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Carolyn E. Kourofsky is president of Excelsior Editorial Consulting, providing articles, grant proposals and marketing materials for non-profits and small business.

Robert E. Cole, Ph.D., is president of Fireproof Children/Prevention First. He is an associate professor at the University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medical Center and recently received a three-year research grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study children's fire misuse and unintentional injury.

Robert Crandall, vice president of Fireproof Children, is a recently retired 30-year veteran of the fire service and holds a bachelor's degree in fire administration. As a line division company officer with the Rochester (N.Y.) Fire Department, he helped develop and evaluate innovative fire and life safety interventions, including the Adopt-a-School Program.

Classroom Kit

In 1992 Fireproof Children/Prevention First assisted Bic Corp. in creating the award-winning play safe! be safe! multimedia classroom kit, of which more than 55,000 have been distributed. The kit brings a firefighter into the classroom through the power of video to teach children ages 3-5 the basics of fire prevention and how to respond to specific fire situations.

The play safe! be safe! kit is available in English, Spanish and French, and includes a 20-minute video, activity boards and flash cards, card game, and teacher's manual.

The kit received the Director's Choice award for best curriculum by Early Childhood News, a journal of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Fireproof Children and play safe! be safe! also received the National Fire Protection Association's Rolf H. Jensen Partners in Public Education Award.

An Internet version of the card game is available at www.keepawaygame.com, and the entire selection of activities and games is available at www.playsafebesafe.com. For more information, visit www.fireproofchildren.com.