Factors associated with Iranian children s perception of danger on the road

The aim of the current study was to explore the association of parental and child factors with pedestrian skills of iranian children. the question was whether parental factors such as verbal instructions given to children on road safety, parent's safe practices in real traffic situations while accompanying their children, and parents' educational level, or child factors such as age, gender, birth-order and number of siblings are related to the skill of children in identifying safe/dangerous road crossing sites. the pedestrian skills of 127 children at ages 7, 9 and 11 years were assessed by a pedestrian task involving 10 pictures of different crossing sites. the frequency of verbal instructions parents give to their children on road safety and safe road behaviour of parents as pedestrian with their children was assessed by a self-report questionnaire. results indicated that the most significant predictor was age. young children were less able to perform the pedestrian task, and measured parental factors did not have any association with children's safety skill. it seems that iranian children have to outgrow the limitations set by their developmental level. the measured parental factors did not have any role in doing so. the study suggests that a culture of road safety should be raised in iran. children need parents to aware them of road dangers in general and to train them specific skill of identifying safe/dangerous road crossing sites. therefore, the role of parents as proper pedestrian models should be considered when developing road safety educational programmes for children in iran