A Developmental Exploration of Expectations for and Beliefs About Preventing Bicycle Collision Injuries

Investigated developmental and gender-related trends in 2nd,5th, and 8th graders', undergraduates', and adults' reactionsto simulated bicycle collisions. Recently, scientists have calledfor exploration of the developmental mechanisms that underliechildhood injury. Our laboratory has, in three separate studies,demonstrated age-related decreases in beliefs about the negativeconsequences of bicycle collision. These developmental decreasesin the expected seriousness of outcome parallel age-relatedincreases in injury risk. The present study examined two alternativeexplanations for cognitive differences that might be relatedto increased risk for bicycle injury with increasing age. Contraryto predictions, however, age and gender were unrelated to subjects'expectations for whether a collision would take place, be activelyavoided, or fail to take place. Similarly, age and gender wereunrelated to whether subjects believed they could remain safe,that safety equipment (e.g., helmets) would keep them safe,or that different behavior would keep them safe. Results failto support these expectations and beliefs as alternative explanationsto developmental and gender-related trends in bicycle injuries,and indirectly suggest the importance of children's beliefs,about the seriousness of injury as a contributer to injury riskbehavior.