Can social psychological models be used to promote bicycle helmet use among teenagers? A comparison of the Health Belief Model, Theory of Planned Behavior and the Locus of Control

2004-01-01
Lajunen, T
Rasanen, M
Show full item record
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
285
views
0
downloads
Problem: The bicycle helmet use rate is still low among teenagers despite the cumulating evidence that bicycle helmets can prevent cyclists from serious injuries and death. The objective of this study was to investigate the usefulness of the Health Belief Model (HBM; Health Education Monographs, 2 (1974) (1), Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB; Ajzen, I. (1988). Attitudes, personality and behavior. Open University Press, Milton Keynes) and Locus of Control model (LC; Psychological Monographs, (1966) (80) in understanding the intention to use bicycle helmet use among bicycle helmet owners. Method: Data were collected at two schools in Helsinki, Finland. Students (N = 965) completed a questionnaire including three social psychological models applied to helmet use. Models were compared by structural equation modeling techniques. Summary: Results showed that the TPB and LC model fitted the data well, whereas fit of the HBM model was lower than the fit of TPB and LC models. All components of TPB and external LC orientation were significantly related to the intention to use a helmet. TPB together with LC model provide a promising theoretical framework for helmet use promotion campaigns. Practical suggestions for future bicycle helmet campaigns were provided. (C) 2004 National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Bicycle helmet, Teenagers, Theory of planned behavior, Health belief model, Locus of control
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/66121
JOURNAL OF SAFETY RESEARCH
Department of Psychology, Article

Suggestions

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...
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...
Motorcycle riders' perception of helmet use: Complaints and dissatisfaction
ORSİ, C; STENDARDO, A; MARİNONİ, A; Gilchrist, M. D.; OTTE, D; CHLİAOUTAKİS, J; LAJUNEN, TIMO JUHANI; Özkan, Türker; Dias Pereira, J.; TZAMALOUKA, G; MORANDİ, A (2012-01-01)
In accidents which involve two-wheeled vehicles the helmet plays a life-saving role, but very little is known about the motorcycle rider's perception of the helmet. We evaluated the relationships between having been involved in an accident and dissatisfaction with the helmet, and between the perception of motorcycle riders and the objective features of the helmet. This was a case-control study: riders of motorized two-wheelers who had been involved in accidents (accident cases) were compared against a simil...
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...
Do internals speed less and externals speed more to cope with the death anxiety?
ALPER, Sinan; Özkan, Türker (2015-07-01)
Past research has showed that mortality salience (MS) increases reckless driving and speeding when the individual perceives driving to be relevant to his or her self-esteem. We claimed that drivers' control orientations also play a significant role in the relationship between MS and speeding. We hypothesized that both a general desirability of control and traffic locus of control (T-LOC) would moderate the effect of MS on speeding. We tested our hypothesis using an online experiment on a sample of 208 young...
Citation Formats
T. Lajunen and M. Rasanen, “Can social psychological models be used to promote bicycle helmet use among teenagers? A comparison of the Health Belief Model, Theory of Planned Behavior and the Locus of Control,” JOURNAL OF SAFETY RESEARCH, pp. 115–123, 2004, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/66121.
METU IIS - Integrated Information Service open@metu.edu.tr