title: Transportation-Related Safety Behaviors in Top-Grossing Children's Movies from 2008 to 2013.
abstract: Children regularly imitate behavior from movies. The authors assessed injury risk behaviors in top-grossing children's films.
  
  
  
  The 5 top-grossing G- or PG-rated movies annually from 2008 to 2013 were included, including animated movies and those set in the past/future. Researchers coded transportation scenes for risk taking in 3 domains: protection/equipment, unsafe behaviors, and distraction/attention.
  
  
  
  Safe and risky behaviors were recorded across the 3 domains. With regard to protection and equipment, 20% of motor vehicle scenes showed characters riding without seat belts and 27% of scenes with motorcycles showed characters riding without helmets. Eighty-nine percent of scenes with horses showed riders without helmets and 67% of boat operators failed to wear personal flotation devices. The most common unsafe behaviors were speeding and unsafe street-crossing. Twenty-one percent of scenes with motor vehicles showed drivers speeding and 90% of pedestrians in films failed to wait for signal changes. Distracted and inattentive behaviors were rare, with distracted driving of motor vehicles occurring in only approximately 2% of total driving scenes.
  
  
  
  Although many safe transportation behaviors were portrayed, the film industry continues to depict unsafe behaviors in movies designed for pediatric audiences. There is a need for the film industry to continue to balance entertainment and art with modeling of safe behavior for children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL.
authors.forename: Shilpa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Boppana
authors.forename: Jiabin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Schwebel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D006260:Head Protective Devices / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000073599:Health Risk Behaviors; D006801:Humans; D009040:Motion Pictures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018986:Motor Vehicles / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009049:Motorcycles / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012449:Safety / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012622:Seat Belts / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012767:Ships / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*