title: Reasons for Child Passenger Nonrestraint in Motor Vehicles.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although child passenger restraint use in motor vehicles has increased, there is an important minority of children who remain unrestrained. The goal of this study was to identify the frequency of and under what circumstances parents keep their children unrestrained.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional, online survey was distributed to parents and caregivers of children 10 years old and younger. Survey participants were asked about child restraint practices, including frequency of and reasons for nonuse of restraints. Parents were specifically asked how acceptable it would be to keep their child unrestrained in certain situations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One thousand two hundred eighty-five parents and guardians responded to the survey and 1,002 completed it; 23.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 21.3-26.6%) of respondents said they had driven with their child not fully restrained on at least one occasion. Approximately 1 in 5 parents strongly or somewhat agreed that it would be acceptable to keep their child unrestrained in certain situations, including a short drive, in a rush, an inadequate number of restraints, riding in a taxi, if somebody was holding the child, and as a reward for a child. Parents were more likely to agree that it was acceptable to keep their child unrestrained under nearly all circumstances listed if they were male, ages 18-29, with a graduate school education, in the $100,000+ income bracket, or Latino.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There are certain situations for which parents find it acceptable to leave their children unrestrained. This has implications for targeted child passenger safety efforts designed to maximize consistent restraint use.
authors.affiliation: a Center for Injury Research and Prevention and Division of Emergency Medicine, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania.|b Department of Pediatrics , Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Mark R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Zonfrillo
authors.affiliation: c Safe Kids Worldwide , Washington , D.C.
authors.forename: Rennie W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Ferguson
authors.affiliation: c Safe Kids Worldwide , Washington , D.C.
authors.forename: Lorrie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Walker
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D057207:Child Restraint Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018986:Motor Vehicles; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: child restraints; child safety; child seat; unrestrained