"He's the Number One Thing in My World": Application of the PRECEDE-PROCEED Model to Explore Child Car Seat Use in a Regional Community in New South Wales.

Kate Hunter,Kathleen Clapham,Rebecca Ivers,Lisa Keay,Lynne Bilston,Julie Brown,Celeste Gilbert,Marilyn Lyford

doi:10.3390/ijerph14101206

Abstract

We explored the factors influencing the use of age-appropriate car seats in a community with a high proportion of Aboriginal families in regional New South Wales. We conducted a survey and three focus groups with parents of children aged 3–5 years enrolled at three early learning centres on the Australian south-east coast. Survey data were triangulated with qualitative data from focus groups and analysed using the PRECEDE-PROCEED conceptual framework. Of the 133 eligible families, 97 (73%) parents completed the survey including 31% of parents who reported their children were Aboriginal. Use of age-appropriate car seats was reported by 80 (83%) of the participants, and awareness of the child car seat legislation was high (91/97, 94%). Children aged 2–3 years were less likely reported to be restrained in an age-appropriate car seat than were older children aged 4–5 years (60% versus 95%: χ2 = 19.14, p < 0.001). Focus group participants highlighted how important their child’s safety was to them, spoke of the influence grandparents had on their use of child car seats and voiced mixed views on the value of authorised child car seat fitters. Future programs should include access to affordable car seats and target community members as well as parents with clear, consistent messages highlighting the safety benefits of using age-appropriate car seats.

Highlights

Despite legislated road safety measures such as the use of appropriate child car seats [1], road crashes continue to be a leading cause of childhood death and serious injury in Australia
The centres were selected based on the number of children attending the centre, a physical layout that allowed for safe observation of child car seat use, and where at least 20% of the children enrolled at the centres were
The survey was adapted from a previous study [7] to include questions about the current child car seat legislation and Aboriginal status of the children travelling in the car and the parent/carer completing the survey

Summary

Introduction

Despite legislated road safety measures such as the use of appropriate child car seats [1], road crashes continue to be a leading cause of childhood death and serious injury in Australia. While legislation was shown to have some impact on use of appropriate car seats, research continues to show that not all children are appropriately restrained [2,3]. Australian studies have reported that only 49–88% of children aged younger than seven years are restrained in the right car seats for their age or size [3,4,5]. Res. Public Health 2017, 14, 1206; doi:10.3390/ijerph14101206 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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