Factors Influencing Preschoolers’ Traffic Risk Perception: Supervisory Characteristics and Sensation Seeking Personality of Parents

Introduction: One of the most deadly accidents for children is traffic accidents. Various studies have examined the factors influencing children’s traffic accidents. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of supervisory and personality characteristics of parents on risk perception of young children.

Method: A correlational study with a practical aim was conducted. A total of 105 preschoolers with their parents from two preschools situated in two districts 3 and 6 in Mashhad on a voluntarily basis participated. Preschool children’s danger perception was assessed by a pedestrian task of identifying safe and dangerous road crossing sites. The supervision attributes and risk _ taking questionnaire and Zuckerman sensation seeking questionnaire were used to measure the supervisory and personality characteristics of parents.

Results: Results showed that there were positive significant relationships between preschooler’s traffic danger perception and parental supervision features and there were negative significant relationships between preschooler’s traffic danger perception and sensation seeking of parents. Also supervisory characteristics of mothers, mother's sensation seeking and father's sensation seeking variables were significant predictors for the danger perception of young children.

Conclusion: Children's danger perception can be greatly influenced by the beliefs and practices of parents in the care of the child and by their personality traits. So parents’, especially mothers’ caring role and the importance of their indirect behaviors associated with risk should be considered when designing preventive measures in order to reduce children’s road accidents.