Reading the road
The influence of age and sex on child pedestrians' perceptions of road risk
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9619267 |
|---|---|
| Authors | JEAN UNDERWOOD (Nottingham Trent University, corresponding author), Gayle Dillon (0000-0002-3934-3815, Nottingham Trent University), Bill Farnsworth (Nottingham Trent University), Alison Twiner (0000-0002-6479-9910, Nottingham Trent University) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 98 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 93-110 |
| Publication date | 2007-02-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | British Journal of Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-1269 • E-ISSN: 2044-8295 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1348/000712606x104409 |
| PMID | 17319052 |
| OpenAlex | W2026705303 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 13 |
The United Kingdom has one of the highest records of child pedestrian accidents in the European Union, and statistics show boys are particularly vulnerable. This study investigated whether there were identifiable developmental or sex differences in the perception of road risk, which might explain the occurrence of such child pedestrian accidents. The study was a between‐participants experimental design with three independent variables: age, sex and task. The sample comprised 119 school children in three age groups (7–8 years; 9–10 years and 11–12 years) with equal sex distribution in each age group. All children, tested individually, completed two sorting tasks. The tasks differed in that children first classified 20 photographs of road scenes on self‐selected criteria (free sort) and then reclassified the scenes on the basis of safety of each scene (cued sort). When children operated a free sort, age differences were apparent in both the number and type of categories produced. However, this age variation was not apparent for the cued sort showing that the younger children were strongly influenced by cueing. Younger children exhibited a more personal and idiosyncratic perspective of the road compared to older children, who were able to view the road from global perspectives. Sex differences in assessing safety were limited but interesting, demonstrating that the males focussed on physical attributes of the scene and females on the actors within the scene. The focus of females on the dynamic attributes of the scene may be a partial explanation of their greater safety record compared to their male peers
Cognitive psychology · Cued speech · Developmental psychology · Environmental health · Geography · Injury prevention · Pedestrian · Perception · Perspective (graphical) · Poison control · Reading (process) · Demography · Human Factors and Ergonomics · Injury Epidemiology and Prevention · Medicine · Psychology · Safety Warnings and Signage · Traffic and Road Safety
| Highly cited | No |
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