Empirical Study of children's risk perception and risk-taking behavior

Research Project

Project/Area Number	11410039
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	教育・社会系心理学
Research Institution	Tezukayama University,Faculty of Humanities
Principal Investigator	RENGE Kazumi TEZUKAYAMA UNIVERSITY,FACULTY OF HUMANITIES,PROFESSOR, 人文科学部, 教授 (00167074)
Project Period (FY)	1999 – 2001
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2001)
Budget Amount *help	¥10,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥10,200,000) Fiscal Year 2001: ¥2,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,900,000) Fiscal Year 2000: ¥3,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,200,000) Fiscal Year 1999: ¥4,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,100,000)
Keywords	TRAFFIC BEHAVIOR / RISK PERCEPTION / HAZARD PERCEPTION / CHILDREN / PRIMARY SCHOOL / RISK-TAKING / RISK-AVOIDING
Research Abstract	The present study focused on children's hazard and risk perception in traffic. Additionally, their risk-taking or risk-avoiding behavior there was also analysed by investigations in primary schools. It was assumed that elder children perceived the hazardous objects in traffic more correctly than younger ones. The relationship between each measure was also examined.Videotaped traffic situations (eight scenes) were presented to the subjects in classrooms of each primary school. Their scores of hazard perception, risk rating, risk-taking or risk-avoiding behavior in traffic were compared between children of each school year and between male and female children. The participants were 283 school children (131 males and 152 females) in Studyl and 608 children (327 males and 281 males) in Study2.The scores of hazard perception demonstrated that children of the first and second years answered much worse than ones of upper years. Male children perceived the hazards more correctly than females. We interpreted the results on the based of the level of exposure to risk in traffic, because male children play outside much longer than females and furthermore ride bicycles more frequently than females. Female children evaluated the same situations more risky than males on the other hand.Scores of comprehension of adequate risk-avoidingabehavior also showed that children of the first and second years answered much worse than ones of upper years. Unlike hazard perception, female children understood the correct behavior better than males. Children's evaluation showed that the elder they were, the more risky they behaved. The relationships of each measure were found only for the children over the third year.