title: The relationship between social capital and traffic law violations: Israeli Arabs as a case study.
abstract: Social aspects of a community may be correlated with driver's involvement in road traffic accidents. This study focused on examining this association in the context of the social capital theory. A survey of 600 Arab drivers living in 19 towns and villages was conducted using a face-to-face interview. Structural equation modeling was applied to explore paths of associations between the model components. Most of the proposed relationships in the path model were found to be significant, where the model explained 37% of the variation. The results indicate that only volunteering and reciprocity have direct correlations with traffic law violations. While the other correlations (except political involvement), were mediated by attitudes toward traffic laws violation. Hence, it can be concluded that it is not always possible to generalize the positive mechanisms of the social capital theory, and in certain populations such as the Arab minority it can give undesirable results.
authors: School of Public Health, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Studies, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel 31905, Israel; North District Health Office, Ministry of Health, Israel; Nursing Faculty, The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, Yezreel Valley, 19300 Israel. Electronic address: obidsa@zahav.net.il.
authors: Samira
authors: S
authors: Obeid
authors: Ran Naor Road Safety Research Center, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Technion City, Haifa 32000, Israel.
authors: Victoria
authors: V
authors: Gitelman
authors: School of Public Health, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Studies, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel 31905, Israel.
authors: Orna
authors: O
authors: Baron-Epel
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018912:Arabs; D001290:Attitude; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D066270:Social Capital; D012931:Social Environment; D066262:Social Norms; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Israeli Arab drivers; Questionnaire survey; Social capital; Traffic law violations