Effectiveness of Child Passenger Safety Information for the Safe Transportation of Children

The objective of this project was to develop and test various methods of framing child passenger safety recommendations for children under age 13. The goal of this first study was to determine how to best communicate child passenger safety recommendations to parents/caregivers, and which information to emphasize. Thus, this study investigated various ways of framing child passenger safety recommendations, and examined the relative effectiveness on parents/caregivers’ knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intentions related to best practices and proper use of child restraints. Specifically, should the recommendations be organized by phase of childhood (e.g., by age, or by progression of younger to older)? Should they focus on key issues, such as combating premature graduation? Should they communicate risk-reduction rationale and consequences of noncompliance? A 5 (test conditions) x 2 (time periods) experiment was conducted using a randomized controlled trial design to examine relative effectiveness of parent and caregiver preferences for different methods of framing car seat safety recommendations. The study took place in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in Norfolk/Hampton Roads, Virginia. Each site recruited and tested 150 participants each (300 total sample).