Researchers Identify Gaps in Child Passenger Safety Materials
In the first study of its kind, researchers from EDC's Health
and Human Development Programs (HHD) assessed the content, availability,
accuracy, and appropriateness of U.S. child passenger safety educational
materials for the general public, as well as identified important gaps
in these materials. The study "Seated for Safety," was prepared
for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, a not-for-profit, publicly
supported research and education foundation. (To see a full copy of the
report, visit www.aaafoundation.org.)
"Our main goal was to identify the strengths and weaknesses of existing
materials; we hope our results will be used to improve the next generation
of child passenger safety resources and inform the development of educational
materials more broadly," said Julie Ross, a co-author of the study
and a project coordinator at HHD's Children's Safety Network, a resource
center within the Center for Violence and Injury Prevention.
The project researchers reviewed 401 printed items collected from 101
organizations. A 10 percent sample was evaluated for technical accuracy,
cultural appropriateness, and appropriateness for audiences with low-literacy
and low-income, and those who transport children with special health care
needs. Because no evaluation tool existed to assess educational materials
for cultural appropriateness, the researchers developed one.
Among the study's most important findings:
Most of the
materials were not appropriately field-tested during their development
or evaluated following dissemination.
Most of the
materials were written two or more years ago and likely contained factual
inaccuracies; child passenger safety recommendations have since changed.
Most of the
materials were not available in languages other than English.
Certain topics
were rarely addressed, such as guidelines for transporting children with
special health care needs or transporting children in vehicles other than
standard passenger cars.
Few of the
evaluated items addressed the needs of children at highest risk of motor
vehicle injury, including those from low-income and non-English-speaking
families.
Many of the
evaluated items did not contain basic, critical information, such as the
importance of rear seating for children 12 and under.
Reading levels
of evaluated items were higher than recommended for the general public.
Between 1994 and 1998, 5,500 motor vehicle passengers 12 and under were
killed and 660,000 were injured, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. Contributing factors included inappropriate selection,
installation, and use of child restraints; inappropriate "graduation"
from child safety seats to seat belts; and improper seating position within
the vehicle.
Minority populations, recent immigrants, non-English speakers, people
with low income, people with low literacy, and children with special health
care needs are at especially high risk of injury as motor vehicle occupants,
according to published research. Educational materials that teach parents
and other caregivers, particularly those associated with these high-risk
groups, how to protect children are an important part of an overall strategy
to reduce child motor vehicle deaths and injuries, said Ross. "Organizations
and agencies that produce these materials should have them developed and
reviewed for technical accuracy by child passenger safety experts, as
well as by target audiences for cultural appropriateness," she noted.
According to the report, new materials need to be developed on specific
topics, such as guidelines for children with special health care needs
and children riding in vehicles other than recent-make cars, such as older
cars with lap belts only, pickup trucks, vans, taxicabs, airport shuttles,
and buses. And particular attention should be paid to developing and disseminating
information in rural areas, said Ross, which have higher motor vehicle
crash and death rates than suburban and urban areas. Pickup trucks and
other vehicles without standard back seats are common in rural areas.
The EDC researchers recommend new, higher standards for child passenger
safety materials, many of which did not appear to have gone through a
formal review process. They advise that all future materials be: written
at recommended reading levels, developed with input from target audiences,
field-tested, available in a variety of languages, and inclusive of issues
of concern to specific populations, such as lower-income populations with
older cars, those who transport children in pickup trucks, and those who
transport children with special health care needs.
"Future research should focus on establishing standards for new educational
materials and on developing better strategies for distributing them to
high-risk target audiences," said Ross. She noted that the evaluation
methods used in the AAA Foundation study could be applied to any educational
materials that need to be developed or updated on a regular basis.
Health & Human Development Programs :: 55 Chapel Street, Newton,
MA 02458-1060
phone 800.225.4276 :: fax 617.527.4096 :: email
info@hhd.org
Copyright 2002 Education Development Center