The road user behaviour of New Zealand adolescents

M. J M Sullman, Helen N. Mann

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    31 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The present study aimed to describe the road user behaviour of New Zealand adolescents and to investigate the applicability of the Adolescent Road user Behaviour Questionnaire (ARBQ) to New Zealand adolescents. In total 944 adolescents were surveyed in the North and South islands of New Zealand. Factor analysis of the scale produced three factors which had acceptable internal reliability and were very similar to those found in the original research. The three factors were "unsafe crossing behaviour", "playing on the road" and "planned protective behaviour". This research also found that males and those who were at least part Maori were more likely to put themselves at risk by playing on the road. Furthermore, those who identified themselves as being part Maori also engaged in unsafe road crossing behaviour more often than Caucasian and Asian adolescents. Interestingly, only the interaction effect between age and sex was significantly related to engagement in planned protective behaviour. However, despite differences between New Zealand and England, and differences in the sample characteristics, the scale appeared to be measuring the same latent variables. Therefore, this research confirmed that the ARBQ is a useful tool for investigating the behaviour of adolescents on the road. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)494-502
    Number of pages9
    JournalTransportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour
    Volume12
    Issue number6
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Nov 2009

    Keywords

    • Adolescents
    • ARBQ
    • Behaviour
    • Pedestrians
    • Road safety

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