Child restraint seat use behavior and attitude among Japanese mothers

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the study was to assess associations between child restraint seat use and attitudes among Japanese mothers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Mothers whose children were under 6 years of age were recruited through 11 kindergartens located in Kanagawa prefecture, Japan. Questions were developed based on the Health Belief Model and the Theory of Reasoned Action. Past use and future intentions to use, perceived risk of injury, knowledge of safety, attitudes toward use, subjective norms, and safety values related to safety seats were asked. RESULTS: A total of 552 complete questionnaires was obtained. Of 500 car owning households, 54.2% used child restraint seats inconsistently on short drives, and 36.4% did so on long drives. Three variables were associated with inconsistent use on short drives: frequent child resistance to sitting in a restraint seat; mothers' feeling hassled by child restraint seat use; and, mothers' agreement with the lack of need to use a restraint seat when another adult is in a car. Two variables were associated with inconsistent use on long drives: lower subjective norm of husband and frequent child resistance. CONCLUSIONS: In-car environmental modification and parent education need to be considered to increase child restraint seat use among Japanese households.     

Discrepancy in bicycle helmet use among college students between two bicycle use purposes: Commuting and recreation

Objectives

The purpose of the study was to examine associations between bicycle helmet use and attitudes among U.S. college students. Bicycle helmet use was assessed for two different bicycle use purposes: commuting to school and recreation.

Materials and methods

Student bicycle riders were recruited on the campus of a large public university in Colorado. Questionnaire development was guided by the Theory of Reasoned Action and Health Belief Model. Bicycle use and helmet use for the two purposes, attitudes toward helmet use and bicycle helmet regulations on campus, perceived risk of bicycle-related injury, subjective norms were asked. Bicycle helmet use was defined by current behaviors and intentions for the future, based on the Stages of Change model.

Results

A total of 192 questionnaires collected from students who rode bicycles for both commuting and recreation was used for the analysis. Bicycle helmet use differed depending on purposes of bicycle riding: 9.4% of bicycle riders wore bicycle helmets every time for commuting, while 36.5% did so for recreation. Different variables were associated with bicycle helmet use for commuting and recreation in logistic regression models, suggesting that psychosocial structures behind bicycle helmet use behaviors might differ between two bicycle use purposes, commuting and recreation.     

Investigation of the effectiveness of a school-based suicide education program using three methodological approaches.

The study demonstrates how to conduct nonexperimental yet rigorous evaluation of suicide education programs when random assignment with control group design is not feasible under practical or ethical constraints. To achieve this goal, the authors show how rigorous evaluation of a school-based suicide education program (Raising Awareness of Personal Power [RAPP]) is conducted by means of three methodological approaches: the rolling group design, the internal referencing strategy, and the minimum competency approach. A total of 779 high school students in seven public high schools in Northern Colorado participated in the current study. Results based on the three approaches provide converging evidence that the RAPP program was effective not only in producing positive change in participants' knowledge, attitudes, and self-efficacy about suicide and suicide prevention, but also in reaching predetermined levels of knowledge and positive reactions to the program. Furthermore, the three approaches demonstrate practicality, usefulness, and rigorousness for future field evaluations if the formal experimental design could not be conducted in practice. Implications for program evaluation are further discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Risk of vehicle-pedestrian and vehicle-bicyclist collisions among children with disabilities

Objectives

To examine the potential association between disability and risk of vehicle-pedestrian and vehicle-bicyclist collisions among children.

Methods

Data from the 2002 National Transportation Availability and Use Survey for Persons with Disabilities (NTAUSPD) were analyzed.

Results

Among 5019 persons who completed the survey, there were a total of 687 children between 5-17 years of age, including 299 respondents with and 388 without disabilities. After controlling for potential confounding variables, children with disabilities were more than five times more likely to have been hit by a motor vehicle as a pedestrian or bicyclist than children without disabilities (adjusted OR = 5.53, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.43-21.41). For all children, regardless of their disability status, children who reported having some difficulty with traffic had a significantly higher risk of collisions (adjusted OR = 50.71, 95% CI: 7.35-349.86). The most commonly reported traffic difficulties for all children with and without disabilities were “Too few or missing sidewalks/paths,” “Do not know when it's safe to cross,” and “Insensitive/unaware drivers.”

Conclusions

Existing effective transportation safety interventions should be effective in reducing the risk of vehicle-pedestrian and vehicle-bicyclist collisions in children with disabilities. Future research and safety interventions should focus on how to promote the use of existing effective transportation safety interventions among children with disabilities and their families.