Starting from the fact that young people are the most threatening, and as drivers the most dangerous traffic participants, an attempt was made to study the development of relevant traffic attitudes and behaviour during their school years. Along with the general questions concerning attitudes toward road safety, some questions were prepared following the line of Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour. They comprised items on behavioural intentions, attitudes, subjective norms and perceived control in three different traffic situations: cycling while intoxicated, use of seat belts, and racing on the road with heavy traffic. The relative importance of different factors and their change during maturation were analysed, and a model of road safety maturation established in rough lines. Special attention was given to the different roles of peers and relevant adults, expecting that with age, the influence of peers becomes more important than the influence of relevant adults. Therefore a representative sample (N = 1,432) of schoolchildren of various ages (from 9 to 19 years) and from different regions of Slovenia (rural, urban) was questioned. Respondents of different age and sex differ in their answers mainly in degree and not so in direction. Their evaluations of road safety, for instance, were similar in the belief that it is important and necessary, but boring and unattractive. Similar tendencies appeared regarding other questions. While they estimated that not one of the referent groups would approve of dangerous behaviour, they would mostly comply with the opinions of parents and the police. Regression and other analysis offered a deeper insight into the results, giving a rather alarming picture of the situation.
Abstract