Injury Prevention and Behavior Projects
Much of our research focuses on the behaviors that lead to injury (usually crash injury), and how this behavior can be modified through education, improved technology, and legislation.
Understanding human behavior is essential to effectively preventing injuries, from buckling up in the right seating position and the right child restraint, to getting behind the wheel. The Center’s researchers are constantly looking deeper into which behaviors keep children safe, and which ones can increase their risk for injury.
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Identifying Interventions that Promote Child Restraint Use
Through research funded by the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA), Center researchers documented factors that affected the intention to use belt-positioning booster seats for parents of children ages 4-8 years. At the start of the research in 2000, nearly all US families were at-risk for premature graduation of children to from car seats to seat belts. Today, booster seat use in the US has increased significantly, and researchers are seeking to develop interventions that target remaining at-risk populations.
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Youthful Driver Research Initiative (YDRI)
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, The University of Pennsylvania, and State Farm Insurance Companies, the academic/industry partnership that leads the Partners for Child Passenger Safety study, convened the world’s leading experts on teens, driving and teen driving in the fall of 2005 and late summer of 2006. The result was an evidence-based road map for the exploration of effective interventions to reduce teen driver-related crash and injury risk. Hypothesizing that effective interventions to significantly reduce teen driver crash risk can only be developed with a clear understanding of the beliefs, attitudes, and developmental stages of young drivers, behavioral science is a crucial component of this research initiative. YDRI’s behavioral scientists are intent on developing teen- and parent-focused interventions, that will translate into safer driving behaviors and fewer teenage driver-related deaths.