Using virtual reality to identify and modify risky pedestrian behaviors amongst Chinese children

Objective: China has a high fatality rate for child pedestrians, which highlights the necessity of implementing more effective pedestrian safety training programs in elementary schools. We thus investigated the efficacy of using virtual reality (VR) as an instructional technology to identify and modify risky pedestrian behaviors among Chinese children.Methods: Seventy-nine children (grades 1 through 3) from three elementary schools in Hubei province participated and were categorized into urban (n = 20), migrant (n = 29), or rural (n = 30) students based on the schools' locations. They completed a VR program comprising three street-crossing challenges to measure five pedestrian behaviors. The participants first attempted to complete the challenges by themselves in the first-time trial (T1) and then engaged in a personalized debriefing session before undertaking the challenges a second time (T2). Pedestrian performance for the two trials was compared by school location and grade level as between-subjects factors, and the rationale behind risky pedestrian behaviors was inductively analyzed.Results: Three risky pedestrian behaviors were observed in the program: dashing into the street, crossing on a blinking green light, and failing to check for traffic. Potential reasons for these behaviors included a lack of knowledge of road signs and traffic rules and the absence of daily adult supervision. The overall pedestrian performance increased from T1 to T2 with a moderate effect size (Ƞ = 0.59, p < .001). A significant main effect of the trials was found for the three pedestrian behaviors (for all values, p < .001); however, interactions of trial by location and trial by grade were nonsignificant in all univariate tests (for all values, p ≥ .05).Conclusions: VR is an effective technology to diagnose and correct risky pedestrian behaviors among Chinese children when accompanied with individual debriefing and repetitive practices. School location and grade level had no significant influence on children's pedestrian performance and learning outcomes, indicating the ubiquity of the pedestrian safety problem and the need for more effective instructional interventions.