Primary grade teachers' perceptions and practices regarding pedestrian safety education.
BACKGROUND
Pedestrian injury is the third leading cause of unintentional injury and death among children 1-14 years old. The purpose of this study was to examine primary grade teachers' perceived role in pedestrian safety education.


METHODS
A total of 630 surveys were sent to a national random sample of primary school teachers and 54% responded.


RESULTS
The results of the study found that 85% of primary grade teachers believed it was extremely important or important to teach pedestrian safety. Forty percent of the teachers identified that they had been teaching pedestrian safety for more than 1 year (maintenance stage), whereas 1 in 3 teachers had never thought about (precontemplation stage) teaching pedestrian safety to their students. Eighty-eight percent of primary grade teachers were very confident about teaching students how to safely cross the street, where to safely cross the street (87%), when to safely cross the street (86%), and how to safely walk along streets with sidewalks (83%). An examination of how pedestrian safety information was presented found that a plurality (39%) of the teachers who taught pedestrian safety presented information through classroom discussion. Also, 46% of the teachers who taught pedestrian safety identified the following as the most common curriculum content: when to safely cross the street (46%), how to safely cross the street (45%), and where to safely cross the street (43%).


CONCLUSIONS
Only 16% of primary school teachers reported pedestrian safety education was required for their grade levels. Yet, pedestrian safety education decreases pedestrian-related deaths. Therefore, it is important for schools and primary grade teachers to expose their students to this essential topic.
Lartey
Grace K
GK
Department of Public Health, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101, USA. grace.lartey@wku.edu
Price
James H
JH
Telljohann
Susan K
SK
Dake
Joseph A
JA
Yingling
Faith
F
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005178:Faculty; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014481:United States; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control*