Pedestrian behaviour of 6th grade Estonian students: Implications of social factors and accident-prevention education at school

Children as pedestrians are one of the most vulnerable groups of road users. Therefore factors associated with risky pedestrian behaviour should be carefully studied. The aim of this article is to clarify how the traffic behaviour of 6th grade students as pedestrians is associated with the behaviour of their traffic companions and prevention activities at school, also taking gender into consideration. The research was conducted based on a randomly-selected sample of 1033 6th-grade students with the mean age of 12.77 ± 0.38 (SD) years. The results showed that compared to girls boys take significantly more risks as pedestrians: they rarely use reflectors during periods of darkness and often cross the road against the red light. The most important role models for adolescents in traffic behaviour are their parents. The role model behaviour with the strongest effect on adolescent high-risk behaviour in traffic is the role model not using crosswalks to cross the street. The results also showed that higher-risk traffic behaviour by adolescent pedestrians is predicted by higher-risk behaviour on the part of their companions (parents, teachers), walking alone on the street, as well as by an adolescent's lower involvement in the less active prevention activities in the classroom. To improve adolescent pedestrians' traffic behaviour social environment and school-based factors should be considered more thoroughly in prevention work at school.