AN ATTITUDINAL MODEL ON THE USE OF BOOSTER SEATS

Many unrestrained child passengers have been killed in motor vehicle collisions. Children under 4, usually from age 4 to 8, are supposed to be sitting in a booster seat restrained by a seat belt. It is important to remember that booster seats can greatly improve protection of our children’s lives when used appropriately. Toward that end, a program on child booster seat safety has been initiated in Tennessee. Specifically, Ollie’s Seatbelt and Booster Seat Safety Program impacted over 55,655 children from 2,833 classrooms in 149 schools from K-4 representing 95 counties of Tennessee. Ollie Otter has already impacted over 13 percent of Tennessee’s 1,156 elementary schools in its first year from August 1, 2007 through May 30, 2008. A research stream has also been started in parallel to this program. The scope of the current paper concentrates only on the following research question in this research stream. What are the attitudes of parents toward buying booster seats and what other attitudinal factors will influence this attitude? Based on a usable sample size of 414 responses, AMOS 7.0 software has been utilized to test the theory presented in the structural equation modeling. Discussion of results and future research avenues has also been provided.