Applying developmental psychology to children's road safety: Problems and prospects

Abstract

This paper reviews the contributions of developmental psychology to our understanding of children's vulnerability as road users and to the formulation and assessment of appropriate intervention programs. Three limitations to the application of developmental psychology are discussed: (1) problems in the applicability to a new domain of both domain-general and domain-specific cognitive competence models; (2) the cultural relativity of developmental descriptions is particularly acute in this domain when the aim may well be to alter the “normal” pattern of development; (3) limitations in the formulation and assessment of intervention outcomes. Problems and insights encountered by attempts to apply developmental psychology are illustrated with reference to studies of children's errors in selecting an unoccluded road-crossing location. On the basis of these studies it is argued that evidence concerning developmental sequences for specific road user abilities may yield important clues to intervention, provided that the temptation to infer an invariant “normal” pattern to development is resisted. The general problem of altering a “normal” pattern of development is discussed with reference to Vygotskian theory.