OCCUPANT PROTECTION FOR CHILDREN: A SURVEY OF RESTRAINT USAGE, ATTITUDES AND KNOWLEDGE

At the end of 1975 household interviews were conducted in Sydney with mothers who had at least one child under eight years of age, and who had a family car. The final survey sample comprised 1196 mother-child pairs. The survey was designed to provide information on restraint use by children in the community under eight years of age, on their mothers knowledge of and attitudes towards child restraints, and to identify usage problems specific to the young child occupant. Results indicated that while young children in general had a very low restraint usage rate, certain groups of children were particularly poorly protected. A child's age and the socio-economic status of his family were found to be the major determinants of his restraint use. A number of important barriers to restraint use by young children were identified by the survey and both legal and persuasive solutions to the problem are examined in the light of these findings. /Author/TRRL/