Parental risk perceptions of childhood pedestrian road safety: a cross cultural comparison.
BACKGROUND
This cross-sectional community-based randomized telephone survey, aimed to compare the parental risk perceptions on childhood pedestrian road safety among three different major community language speaking groups and the mainstream English speaking Australians in Sydney, Australia.


METHODS
This was a community-based telephone survey with subjects randomly selected from the population of specific cultural languages in Sydney.


RESULTS
Results indicated that Chinese and Arabic speaking parents or caregivers perceived the road environments as significantly less hazardous for their 4-12 year old children as pedestrians when compared with Vietnamese and English speaking parents. This was true even after adjusting for the age of child, socioeconomic status, and the living environments of respondents.


CONCLUSIONS
The implication of the results was discussed in light of possible application to childhood safety behavior across different cultures. IMPACT TO THE INDUSTRY: The results obtained have highlighted the importance of cultural factors in risk perceptions, and safety behaviors. Cultural differences in risk perceptions should be taken into consideration in the design of safety education programs.
Lam
Lawrence T
LT
Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Locked Bag 4001, Westmead, NSW 2145, Australia. lawrencl@chw.edu.au
D000063:Accidents, Traffic; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009517:New South Wales; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012449:Safety; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016138:Walking