Why Turks do not use seat belts? An interview study

Date

2008-03-01

Author

Simsekoglu, Ozlem
Lajunen, Timo

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

257
views

0
downloads

Despite the effectiveness of seat belt use and legislation, seat belt use rate is low in Turkey. The aim of this study was to investigate the motives to use and not to use a seat belt in different traveling conditions in a sample of car drivers and passengers. Interviews were made face to face with 221 interviewees from different age and occupation groups. Frequently reported reasons for using a seat belt were traveling conditions, safety, situational conditions, habit of using a seat belt, and avoiding punishment. Frequently reported reasons for not using a seat belt were situational conditions, not believing in the effectiveness, discomfort and having no habit. Safety was the strongest predictor of reported seat belt use in both low and high risk traveling conditions. Findings suggest that seat belt campaigns should mainly emphasize seat belt's safety impact and aim at habit formation.

Subject Keywords

Turkey, Seat belt use, Interview study, Reasons for seat belt use, Safety, Habit

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/65524

Journal

ACCIDENT ANALYSIS AND PREVENTION

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2007.08.002

Collections

Department of Psychology, Article

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Social psychology of seat belt use: A comparison of theory of planned behavior and health belief model Simsekoglu, Oezlem; Lajunen, Timo (2008-05-01) Despite the proven effectiveness of seat belt use in reducing injury severity in road traffic accidents, a large number of car occupants do not use a seat belt in Turkey. The main aim of the present study was to explain self-reported scat belt use among front seat passengers with the basic and extended (habit, moral norm and anticipated regret added) theory of planned behavior (TPB) model and the health belief model (HBM), and to compare the models' predictive power and fit to the data. Students (N = 277) c...
Relationship of seat belt use to health and driver behaviors Simsekoglu, Ozlem; Lajunen, Timo (2009-05-01) Seat belts are effective safety devices for protecting car occupants from injuries and fatalities in road vehicle accidents. Seat belt use has been reported to be related to some health and driving-related behaviors. The aim of the present study was to investigate to what degree seat belt use can be seen as health behavior or driver behavior. Participants were 252 licensed Turkish drivers (180 males, 72 females) with the mean age of 30.8 (SD = 12.15). A questionnaire including questions related to health-re...
Why teenagers owning a bicycle helmet do not use their helmets Lajunen, T; Rasanen, M (2001-09-01) Problem: Recent reports about bicycle helmet wearing indicate that the number of helmet users is still very small among teenagers. The objective of this prevalence survey was to investigate why teenagers do not use a bicycle helmet even if they have one. Method: Data were collected at two schools in Helsinki, Finland. High school students (N = 965) completed a questionnaire about their cycling habits and bicycle helmet use. Results: A student's parents' positive attitude to bicycle helmet use was the strong...
Does Traffic Safety Climate Perception of Drivers Differ Depending on Their Traffic System Resilience and Driving Skills Evaluation? GÜNER, Gizem; TÜMER, Ece; Öztürk, İbrahim; Öz, Bahar (2018-08-30) Road traffic accidents are one of the most important public health problems in Turkey and all over the world. Traffic system involves many agents from a micro level, such as drivers, to a macro level, such as traffic climate. Traffic system resilience and driving skills are crucial factors that determine the road traffic accidents and their outcomes; in addition to being related to the development of sustainable and safer road traffic system. In this study, it is aimed to investigate group differences deriv...
The validity of self-reported seatbelt use in a country where levels of use are low Özkan, Türker; Lajunen, Timo; Hoe, Connie; Hyder, Adnan (2012-07-01) \The validity of self-reported seatbelt use among low belt use populations in low belt use countries has not been evaluated directly. Nine hundred and ninety drivers were recruited from shopping centers, car parks, and other suitable locations located in Afyon and Ankara cities of Turkey in order to compare the self-reported and observed seatbelt usage rates. Data sets were collected simultaneously from the participants not being aware of having their seatbelt use observed. Participants interviewed in Afyon...

Citation Formats

O. Simsekoglu and T. Lajunen, “Why Turks do not use seat belts? An interview study,” ACCIDENT ANALYSIS AND PREVENTION, pp. 470–478, 2008, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/65524.