Parents’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Behavior about Child Passenger Safety

Cunningham, Jo Lynn; Hughes, E. Christy; Philpot, John W.; Pentz, Clyde A. · 1981 · ROSA P / United States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (full text — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This 1981 report by Cunningham et al., commissioned by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, investigates the factors influencing parental compliance with Tennessee’s Child Passenger Protection Law. The study was motivated by the high rate of injury and death among children under four in automobile accidents and the observation that restraint usage rates were critically low (approximately 10%) prior to legislative intervention. The research aimed to determine if parents who used child restraint systems differed from non-users in their knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, and to assess how these factors changed before and after the law’s implementation. The study employed a three-tiered data collection procedure involving a sample of over 5,000 parents in Tennessee, with detailed analysis conducted on nearly 1,000 participants. Data were gathered at three distinct time points: before the law took effect (January 1, 1978), six months after, and one year after. The researchers utilized a conceptual framework based on Rokeach’s theory of beliefs, which posits that behavior is a function of cognitive (knowledge/awareness), affective (attitudes/values), and behavioral components. The analysis examined differences in beliefs regarding restraint systems, government regulation, and occupant protection legislation across different user groups and time periods. The findings revealed significant differences between parents who used child restraint systems and those who did not. Users demonstrated higher levels of knowledge and more favorable attitudes toward restraint systems and safety legislation compared to non-users. Furthermore, the study identified improvements in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors across all measured dimensions following the passage of the law. The researchers explained variations in restraint usage through three categories of factors: predisposing factors (beliefs, values, previous behavior), reinforcing factors (physical comfort, convenience, social approval), and enabling factors (accessibility, availability, skills). The significance of this study lies in its contribution to understanding the interrelationships between parental beliefs and safety behaviors. By identifying that users and non-users differ in their belief systems and that legislative action can shift these beliefs, the report provides a basis for developing more effective public information and education programs. The findings suggest that interventions should target not only knowledge but also the affective and enabling factors that mediate behavioral change, offering insights for policymakers and practitioners aiming to improve child passenger safety compliance.

Key finding

Parents who used child restraint systems had significantly higher knowledge and more positive attitudes than nonusers, and all three dimensions improved after the law took effect.

Methodology

survey

Sample size: 1000

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (6 acquisition events logged).

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• child passenger safety
• seat belt use
• parental management

Information type

What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).

• Empirical Findings: observational prevalence