Behavior and parental expectations of child pedestrians

Pedestrian injuries remain the most common cause of death from trauma for young school-age children. This study was based on the hypothesis that parents' abilities to accurately assess their children's street-crossing skills vary with the crossing test and age of the children, being less accurate for younger children. Children at three developmental levels (aged 5 through 6, 7 through 8, and 9 through 10 years) and their parents were evaluated on four street-crossing tests and a control vocabulary test. For each test, children's answers were compared to parents' estimates of their children's performance. Parents overestimated the abilities of their 5-through 6-year-olds on all four tests (P less than .01). Parents overestimated the abilities of 7- through 8-year-olds on two of the tests (P less than .05) and parents accurately assessed the abilities of the 9- through 10-year-olds. On the vocabulary test, parents overestimated their children's performance at all age levels (P less than .01). The results support the hypothesis and indicate that parents' expectations for their children's pedestrian skills are least accurate for 5- and 6-year-olds, with the mismatch decreasing as children get older. Inaccurate expectations of children's pedestrian skills may be fruitful target for injury prevention programs.