The missing children issue. A preliminary examination of fifth-grade students' perceptions

J. H. Price and S. M. Desmond

We examined elementary students' beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge regarding the missing children issue. A 22-item questionnaire on missing children was distributed to a sample of 315 fifth-grade children in a large midwestern city. In ranking five concerns, 49% of the students ranked someone grabbing them as their primary concern. The students perceived themselves as susceptible to the problem of missing children and thought that it was a serious issue. Fifty-nine percent of the children were afraid to be friendly toward people they did not know, and 44% believed it was likely or highly likely that they would become missing children. The mass media was their leading source of information on missing children. Their level of knowledge regarding the issue was poor; the majority did not know who usually takes children, how many are taken, or what usually happens to missing children.