A Risky Treat: Exploring Parental Perceptions of the Barriers to Seating Their Children in the Rear Seats of Passenger Vehicles

Although few studies have addressed the factors that affect parents’ decisions in relation to children's seating position in passenger vehicles, these factors do not appear to be based on safety knowledge or space considerations. This study explores parental perceptions of barriers to placing their children in the rear seat of passenger vehicles. Focus group discussions were held with urban parent-drivers to elicit their concerns about children’s car safety and barriers to rear-seat use. Findings show that most parents had a rule that children should sit in the rear seat. However, parents said that they relaxed these rules for a variety of reasons, including social pressure, perceptions of the trip as short and because children regard sitting in the front seat as a treat. Parenting style, child cooperativeness, social pressure and inability to justify the risk of injury were identified as barriers to rear-seat travel. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of developing more effective interventions to increase the proportion of children traveling in the rear seat.

• Record URL:
  http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/13/2/105
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/13538047
• Authors:
  • Lennon, Alexia
• Publication Date: 2007-4

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 105-109
• Serial:
  • Injury Prevention
  • Volume: 13
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group
  • ISSN: 1353-8047
  • EISSN: 1475-5785
  • Serial URL: http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Children; Focus groups; Motor vehicles; Parents; Perception; Rear seat occupants; Safety campaigns; Social factors; Vehicle safety
• Uncontrolled Terms: Seating position
• Subject Areas: Highways; Passenger Transportation; Safety and Human Factors; Society; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01049703
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 25 2007 10:34AM