| No.190/2004
Research Findings |
Development Department Research Programme |
Parental Attitudes to Road Safety Education
Tony Graham, Katy Fyfe, Anne Murray
ODS Ltd. with Market Research UK
This document is also available in pdf format (112k)
In August 2003 the Scottish Executive commissioned ODS Ltd. and Market Research UK to carry out research into parental attitudes to road safety education (RSE) in Scotland. The study was to focus on parents of two specific age groups of children and young people - 7 to 13 year olds and 14 to 18 year olds. The impetus for this research arose out of previous studies that have demonstrated the central role that parents play in the road safety education of their children. Research has also found that the ability of parents to develop road safety education varies widely and depends on a range of factors and influences. |
Main Findings and Conclusions
- Parents perceive themselves as having the main responsibility to develop road safety awareness and skills in their children.
- The most prevalent approach to road safety education by parents is by example in "real life" situations. While they tend to use key road safety messages such as "Stop, look, listen", generally approaches to road safety education by parents are ad hoc.
- Most parents change their own behaviour when in road related situations when they are accompanied by their children to act as "role models".
- Parents have a high level of confidence in their childrens' road user skills, with the main risks faced by children perceived as external factors, such as "speeding motorists", rather than the behaviour of their child.
- Some parents expressed concern that road safety awareness deteriorated as children became teenagers or when they were with friends.
- There is a need for educational initiatives to "target" certain groups of parents whose children may be more at risk of involvement in a road accident.
- With many parents demonstrating a lack of awareness of road safety activity at school, there is a need for better linkages to be created between parents and schools.
- Potential ways of creating these linkages include joint training for parents and teachers, and using parents as volunteers in providing training to young people.
Introduction
The aims for the research were to:
- Provide a literature review of research on parental attitudes to RSE and parental influence on children's road safety behaviour.
- Assess parental understanding of children's road safety risks.
- Find out what parents concerns are about their children in regard to road safety and what behaviours parents are encouraging in their children.
- Explore parents' image of RSE, particularly at secondary school and, for both age groups of children, look into children's attitudes towards RSE and the control of their parents.
- Establish the extent to which parents are willing to become involved in RSE and how this might be facilitated.
- Make recommendations on how to effectively involve parents of the different age groups in RSE.
The study follows on from previous research carried out by the Scottish Road Safety Campaign (SRSC) into the development of a Road Safety Education Strategy in Scotland. The outcome of this has been to focus on supporting the development of partnership based approaches to RSE between schools, local road safety officers and parents.
The promotion of RSE is a key element in the Scottish Executive's strategy for casualty reduction in Scotland. With a target of a 50 per cent reduction in child casualties by 2010 (from the 1994-1998 baseline). The development of better road user skills in young people along with increased enforcement and improved road and engineering measures form the basis of a broad based strategy to achieve this target.
Findings
Literature Review
The literature review identified a need to:
- Educate parents about where, when and at what age children should be supervised.
- Increase the skills and knowledge of parents on key road safety messages, including driving safety and behaviour.
- Complement the everyday interactions between parents and children, so that parents are guided towards progressive and developmental "on-road" training.
- Develop initiatives that bring parents in as partners to complement programmes being delivered through schools.
General Findings
- The majority of parents regard road safety education as an important part of their role. Around two thirds feel that they have primary responsibility for the development of road safety awareness in their children. The remaining third see the responsibility shared between themselves, schools and other stakeholders such as the Police or Road Safety Units.
- Road safety is seen as one of the main three risks faced by children of all ages, along with drug and alcohol abuse and violence, bullying and intimidation.
- Most parents felt that their children have developed sufficient skills and awareness of road safety. The main risks are perceived to come from external factors such as driver behaviour rather than the behaviour of the child.
- Speeding traffic was viewed by parents of both age groups as the main risk to child pedestrians.
- One area of concern was the perceived deterioration in skills as children became teenagers.
- There is evidence that black and minority ethnic parents generally have less confidence in their children's road safety skills and awareness than the population as a whole.
- Parents of both age groups shared a concern that their children's approaches to road safety deteriorated when they were with a group of friends, where peer pressure tended to result in less care being taken.
Teaching Road Safety - Parents
- The most prevalent approach to road safety education by parents is by example in "real life" situations.
- Most parents change their own road user behaviour when accompanied by their children.
- Parents of younger children are more likely to reinforce road safety messages than the parents of older, teenage children.
- Parents of the older age group recognise that there is a danger of teenage or adolescent children "reacting against" too much advice and warning.
- There is a need for positive action to target certain groups of parents in order to address greater levels of risk and poorer levels of skill and awareness, particularly among certain, more disadvantaged sections of the community.
- There is continuing need/demand for simple information on key road safety skills for a small but significant proportion of parents.
Teaching Road Safety - At School
- There are varying levels of understanding and appreciation of RSE within schools, with a substantial proportion of parents having little knowledge of what is taught.
- Parents believed that the main purpose of RSE within primary schools was the reinforcement of basic road user skills, especially safe pedestrian behaviour.
- Parents believed that the main focus within the secondary school should be the development and reinforcement of responsible, considerate and mature attitudes within teenagers, which will in turn reinforce safe road user behaviour. It was felt that this would assist in the preparation of young people for driving.
Linking Schools and Parents
- A significant proportion of parents indicated a willingness to get involved in road safety work within the schools their children attend. Consultation with other stakeholders, particularly teachers would suggest that in reality, this is likely to be an over-estimate.
- However, there are substantial untapped resources in the form of voluntary parental support for school based road safety activities.
- There is significant involvement by some Road Safety Units with groups such as Parents Teachers Associations and School Boards which can be built upon, through, for example, the development of joint teacher parent training workshops.
- There is particular scope to involve the parents of teenage children in pre-driver education in conjunction with the schools their children attend and local Road Safety Units.
Recommendations
Resources
- An audit of current material and resources as part of a wider strategic review of road safety resources should be undertaken in order to identify gaps or resources requiring updating.
- The provision, through schools, of a simple, up to date leaflet which sets out road safety strategies for teaching key pedestrian skills and summarises the types of road safety work which is being developed in schools and ways in which parents can support and reinforce this.
- The SRSC consider the production in DVD/video format of a resource "Helping your child to safety", specifically aimed at parents of the 7-13 year old group. This would identify the main road safety risks identified by parents, children and road safety professionals.
- Targeted education and publicity campaigns should be aimed at the significant proportion of the adult population who themselves do not possess certain key skills and awareness of road safety.
- The SRSC should initiate discussions with Road Safety Units and a number of Community Learning Partnerships to explore the potential to incorporate RSE into local community learning strategies, particularly in Social Inclusion Partnership areas.
Creating Linkages
- The SRSC should develop a pilot project with a small number of Road Safety Units to develop awareness raising workshops for parents and teachers and produce a simple training pack covering these themes which could be made available to local Road Safety Units.
- The SRSC, along with one Road Safety Unit, should work to develop a programme specifically for a group of parents in relation to pre-driver education for young people. This could be developed in partnership with two or three secondary schools with a view to placing parents as "volunteer instructors" in these schools. This pilot could then be evaluated to assess the potential for extension to other schools throughout Scotland.
- Local road safety strategies should take the key role that parents have in the RSE of their children into account in the development of local campaigns, promotional and educational activities.
- The SRSC could develop links with Young Scot, to use its magazine to promote key road safety messages to teenagers throughout Scotland.
Further Research
Follow up research should be conducted which looks in more detail at the interaction between parents and children in real life road and travel related situations. The aim of this would be to assess potential differences between what parents say they do, and what they actually do in real life.
Another area which would benefit from further research, is on attitudes of teenagers to road safety. While there has been already some work carried out in this area, the study should focus on how road safety messages can be most effectively conveyed to this group to bring about changes in attitudes and behaviour.
About the study
The study was carried out between August 2003 and March 2004. It comprised of the following stages:
- a desk top literature review on parental attitudes and involvement in RSE
- a large scale quantitative door to door survey of 2,400 parents of children aged 7-13 years and young people aged 14-18 years
- thirteen focus groups with parents and their children (held in parallel)
- consultative interviews with key stakeholders including representatives of Road Safety Units, head teachers and key agencies and organisations.
The study was overseen by a small advisory group with representatives of the Scottish Executive and the Scottish Road Safety Campaign.
If you wish further copies of this research findings or have any queries about Social Research, please contact: Scottish Executive Social Research
1-F (Dockside)
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ
Tel: 0131 244-7565
Fax: 0131 244-7573
Socialresearch@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
www.scotland.gov.uk/socialresearch | If you wish a copy of 'Parental Attitudes to Road Safety Education' the research report which is summarised in this research findings, please send a cheque for 5.00 made payable to: The Stationery Office
71 Lothian Road
Edinburgh
EH3 9AZ
Tel: 0870 606 5566
Fax: 0870 606 5588
http://www.tso.co.uk/bookshop |
This document (and other Research Findings and Reports) and information about social research in the Scottish Executive may be viewed on the Internet at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/socialresearch The site carries up-to-date information about social and policy research commissioned and published on behalf of the Scottish Executive. Subjects covered include transport, housing, social inclusion, rural affairs, children and young people, education, social work, community care, local government, civil justice, crime and criminal justice, regeneration, planning and women's issues. The site also allows access to information about the Scottish Household Survey. |