Child care centers: a community resource for injury prevention

Child passenger safety, a major public health concern, has been addressed by state laws mandating use of child restraint devices. Usage rates in poor and minority communities are disproportionately low. To determine the influence of the child care center within these communities to improve routine use, an educational clinical trial, based on social learning theory was designed. Two urban child care centers enrolling high-risk 2- through 6-year-old children were monitored for correct child restraint use during a 5-month educational intervention at one center. Key features of intervention programming included weekly, developmentally appropriate presentations by the staff to the children and documented parental awareness of the child care center's policy advisory regarding child restraint use. Results demonstrate statistically significant (p < .01) increases in use at the intervention center. This study finds that child care center policy and programming can be effective in promoting child passenger safety.