Correlation between parental perception and actual childhood patterns of bicycle helmet use and riding practices: Implications for designing injury prevention strategies

Parenting Influences on Bicycle Helmet Rules and Estimations of Children's Helmet Use

“…Because we did not survey the children as well, there is the possibility parents are overestimating whether the rules translate into actual helmet use (Ehrlich et al, 2001;Ehrlich et al, 2004). While these findings support earlier work on the importance of monitoring for children's health and safety behaviors, this appears to be the first study demonstrating parental monitoring is associated with helmet rules and helmet use in particular.…”

“…Indeed, parents may be unaware of whether their children wear helmets. Ehrlich, Longhi, Vaughan, and Rockwell (2001) surveyed parents and children (aged 8-12) separately and found a significant discrepancy: parents stated children wore a helmet 90% of the time, whereas children estimated riding without one approximately 60% of the time. Similarly, Ehrlich, Helmkamp, Williams, Haque, and Furbee (2004) found 51% of children stated that they always wear helmets (compared to 70% of corresponding parents) and 20% of the children reported never wearing one (compared to 4% of corresponding parents).…”

Parents' perceptions, attitudes and behaviours towards child safety: a study in 14 European countries

“…These findings are in agreement with the study by Mayr, in which 80% of parents interviewed would appreciate a preinstallation of car restraints, 54% requested more informative instructions for users and 33% asked for products with better stability (Mayr et al 1999). This information is useful to determine the link between parental perception of safety equipment and use (Ehrlich et al 2001), as well as parental misconceptions of safety equipment, which may jeopardize the safety of their children (Ramsey et al 2000).…”

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Sport Helmet Interventions in a Pediatric Emergency Department

“…Still, helmet ownership by no means ensures helmet usage. 22 Our population was clearly a high-risk group as all children did not wear or own a helmet at baseline. More than half of the children reported riding in the street despite not having a helmet, whereas less than half of all parents and children enrolled in the study reported previous education about helmets from other sources.…”